


The Search for Hope

by sailortaylor



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Angst, Dangan Ronpa & Super Dangan Ronpa 2 Spoilers, Multi, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-09 14:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 49,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4351901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailortaylor/pseuds/sailortaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my own take on what happened at the end of Super Dangan Ronpa 2. There will be spoilers for both the first and second game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How The End Began

It's been six months. Since the end of their friends deaths. Since the end of the Mutual Killing. But not since the end of despair. Despair still comes back to haunt them. There are memories that trigger nightmares that keep them up at night. They remember the terrifying past, but they have been trying to move towards the hopeful future. They've been working together to try to create a future, better than any fate from the real world. But it's not easy. There have been despair filled memories flooding their minds, making it difficult to concentrate. They have been expecting, hoping for their friends to come back, but day after day, they never do. They have also been having disagreements. After six months of living with the same people, who all have different values, it gets tough. From the minute they stepped foot onto this island, there has never been a dull moment. From tortured screams to despair filled sobs, they deal with a lot on a daily basis, but the Future Foundation has been helping them through everything. Before they left, they gained ways to contact them.

Naegi was walking to the boat when he suddenly pulled Hinata over. Naegi had a white box in his hands. 

"Hey, Hinata! Can I talk to you for a second?" he said. 

"Yeah sure," Hinata answered, walking over to where Naegi was standing.

"I wanted to thank you guys for saving us. You really did a nice job," Naegi said with a small smile on his face.

"It was tough on all of us.. And my head.. I have a pounding headache," Hinata laughed. 

Naegi joined into Hinata's laughter and guided him to a curb to sit down. 

"You guys should try to take it easy. Having been through the same thing, I talk from experience when I say this," Naegi said.

"Oh right! I forgot that you guys went through the same thing! It was in a school though, right?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah.. It was.. Traumatizing.." Naegi said, grimly.

"I can imagine.. You went to school with them before.. Uh.."

"Yeah.. But none of us knew it.. So.. One after another.. They all died in front of our eyes."

".. If you don't mind me asking.. What was it like for you guys? You never had access to sun.. Or fresh air.. Or anything for that matter.. And.. This may be pushing it.. But, can you tell me a little bit about the murders and executions that happened?" Hinata asked.

"Well.. The way my classmates were murdered wasn't nearly as complicated as your murders.. People were stabbed, there was a lot of head trauma, and a suicide. Then.. The executions.. Well.."

Togami, who had been walking to the boat stopped in front of us. 

"One was beaten with baseballs, another turned to butter, one was burned and crushed my a fire truck, and Naegi here was nearly squashed. Are you done here?" Togami said bitterly. 

"Togami!" Naegi scolded.

"You were nearly crushed?!" Hinata exclaimed surprised. 

Naegi looked at the ground with an embarrassed expression. "W-well.. I.. I didn't murder anyone but.."

"Junko tried to kill him. Need I say more? Naegi, we need to leave," Togami said.

"Okay, I'll be there in a second."

"Hurry up," Togami said, walking away. 

"Hey, Hinata. I don't want to lose contact with you guys so here," Naegi said handing the white box to Hinata. 

Hinata opened the box to find a bunch of small boxes. He couldn't concentrate enough to realize what they really were.

"Are they.. Cellphones?" Hinata asked holding one up.

"Yeah!" Naegi said taking one out of the box and turning it on. "Everyone has a cellphone for themselves. There are fifteen, if you were wondering. If your friends wake up, they each get one as well." The screen flashed on. "This one is Souda's." He pressed another button and a contact list flashed onto the screen. "Important numbers are already programmed into the phones and the laptops at the tech shop are in working condition. When you turn on the phones and laptops, you are going to see twenty one numbers and six emails; Mine, Togami's, and Kirigiri's, as well as our other friends Fukawa's, Asahina's, and Hagakure's. They're part of the Future Foundation too, and were part of the school killings. We told them what was going on, so you can contact them as well as us. On occasions, we will text you guys and ask for reports. If anything strange happens, or anything you guys feel is important, please let us know. The TV's in your rooms are all working. There are a few working channels.""Naegi! Let's go!" Togami called from the boat. 

Naegi stands up and begins to walk towards the boat while motioning for Hinata to follow. He follows behind.

"Don't be alarmed when I say this, but the cameras are still working. We are going to leave them on to make sure everything is going okay here. Like we said, it's possible for your friends who have "died" to come back. If something like that happens, get in contact with us immediately," Naegi explained. 

"Naegi!" Togami yelled.

"Okay just one second!" 

Togami rolled his eyes and began to talk to Kirigiri.

Naegi continued talking. "A lot is going to happen on this island, and it's going to be hard trying to cope. But please, stay hopeful and help each other out."

Naegi put his hand on Hinata's shoulder.

"A lot is going to happen, and we won't always be there to help. You're going to have to depend on each other from now on. I'm sure you guys can handle it though."

Naegi put his hand out like he was about to shake Hinata's hand.

"It was really nice meeting you again Hinata. I know you guys can do it. Keep hope alive, and if you need anything, we're a phone call away."Naegi and Hinata shook hands.

"Thank you Naegi," Hinata said. 

"Naegi come on!" Togami yelled impatiently.

"I'm coming!" he called back. "Bye Hinata."

And after that, the Future Foundation trio left. Hinata went back to see if his friends were okay. When Hinata had gotten up to escort the Future Foundation to the boat, he left the rest of his friends in the pod room. They were dead tired and they weren't up to standing up. Hinata had felt a bit better than the rest of them and volunteered to escort them out. When he came back into the room, he found his friends exactly where he had left them: laying in their pods completely distorted. Sonia had her hand on her chest, Fuyuhiko had a hand on his forehead, while Akane and Souda rubbed their eyes. Hinata found that his friends didn't look much different from when they had stepped out of the simulation. Fuyuhiko still had his eye patch and Souda still had his bright pink hair. The only difference was their clothing. The girls were both clothed in white dresses that resembled nightgowns that reached the bottom of their knee. The boys all wore white t-shirts with white sweatpants. Naegi said he had no idea why they woke up dressed like that, but they all agreed that it wasn't the worst thing. 

Fuyuhiko groggily tried to sit up in his pod, but he couldn't hold himself and, if it weren't for Hinata, he would have fallen. 

"Thanks Hinata," he said weakly.

Hinata propped Fuyuhiko up on the wall of his pod. Fuyuhiko's eye patch stuck out like a sore thumb. He had a thick scar running down the top of his right arm, but Hinata wasn't sure if it had been there before considering he always wore long sleeves. A small part of the scar from his eye stuck out from under the eye patch. He still had a baby-like face, but he still looked a bit older. 

"How come you don't feel like crap and we do, Hinata?" Souda asked angrily from his pod.''

"I, uh, I don't actually know," Hinata said. 

Souda still had his bright pink hair sticking out from underneath a white hat, which looked just like his old one. His sharp teeth hadn't changed, but there was a small scar underneath his eye, which Hinata knew for a fact hadn't been there. Just like Fuyuhiko, he looked slightly older. 

Akane was groaning from her pod, which was on the other side of the room away from everyone else. 

"I feel like I was hit by a bus," she said moaning. Hinata walked over and propped her up like he did to Fuyuhiko. He rubbed her shoulder trying to make her feel a bit better. Akane looked exactly the same. There were only two small differences: there was a bandage on her left kneecap and once again, she looked a bit older. 

"I feel the same way," Souda said.

"Do you want to sit up too, Souda?" Hinata asked.

"Would you mind helping me?" he said embarrassed. 

Hinata walked over and helped him sit up. He, unlike Akane, actually helped Hinata by trying to sit up. 

"You good?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But Sonia hasn't said anything since you came in, so maybe you should check on her," he said pointing at Sonia's pod. 

Hinata walked over to find Sonia asleep in her pod. Her hand was on her chest while her hair was spread out behind her in all different directions. It reminded Hinata of the Sleeping Beauty. Sonia looked the tiniest bit older and had a bandage on her right elbow. Her braid was still in her head with a white bow sitting on the top of her head. Everyone else in the room seemed completely stressed, and she wasn't aware of it. He saw her chest rise and fall, so he didn't have to worry about her. He knelt down and took her hand from her chest. 

"Sonia," he began saying. "You okay?" 

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Hinata. 

"Hm?" She said quietly. 

"You okay?" Hinata repeated. 

She nodded her head slightly and said nothing. 

"Wanna sit up?" Hinata asked her.

She nodded her head and began to sit up a little bit. Hinata let go of her hand and hoisted her up and propped her against the wall of the pod. 

"Thank you Hinata," she said quietly. Hinata could tell that she was still very tired, but she didn't seem to feel nearly as terrible as the others. She gave him a small smile as she pushed her hair behind her hair.

"Sonia, how did you fall asleep?" Fuyuhiko asked. "I mean, we've been talking since we woke up."

"I don't really know," she said. "I was tired I guess."

Everyone began to laugh. It had been a long time since they were able to genuinely laugh altogether. Hinata finally felt like everything was normal again. He felt like there was no more tension, and that they could finally all trust each other. He was overjoyed looking at everyone's happy faces.

Hinata sat down on the edge of his own open pod. 

"Anyone feel up to going to our cabins?" Hinata asked with a thumbs up.

"I still feel like hell," Fuyuhiko said leaning back. 

"Me too," Souda said. "Hinata, can you check the pods and make sure no one else is awake?" 

"Sure thing," Hinata said getting up.

The Future Foundation had made it very clear that we needed to check on the pods every now and then. There was an alarm system set up on the island to alert us when someone was awake. The pods are shut, and when the person inside wakes up, they're usually too weak to open them on their own. The alarm isn't guaranteed to work on everyone, so the Future Foundation had said to check on all of their sleeping friends every so often. Hinata looked over at the pod next to his own. He looked down to find an unusually peaceful Ibuki Mioda. She wore a white dress just like Sonia and Akane's. Her hair was still as vibrant as ever, but her eyes weren't open. Hinata kept going. Next he found Gundam, who wore the same clothes as every other boy in the room. His eyes were closed as well. As he kept going, he passed Koizumi, Teruteru, Mikan, Nidai, etc. until he found that no one else was awake. Everyone was wearing the same clothes. 

"No one else is up," Hinata said.

"That stinks," Souda said. "I was hoping that someone else was up.""What we're not good enough for ya?" Fuyuhiko said.

"N-no that’s not it!" Souda said. 

"Relax, I'm just joking," Fuyuhiko said. Souda looked at everyone sheepishly and everyone laughed. 

"Well, it sounds like everyone is feeling a bit better, so how about trying to get to the cottages?" Hinata asked excitedly. 

Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes and Akane pretended to gag. Everyone laughed again.

"If no one else will try, I will Hinata," Sonia said proudly.

"That's the spirit!" Akane said.

"Which none of you have," Hinata commented. It sent everyone into laughter again. Sonia wrapped her arm around Hinata's shoulder while he put his around her back. He hoisted her up and she stepped out of the pod. They took a couple steps with Hinata still holding her up. Then, she let go and walked a bit on her own. She stopped and leaned against the wall as Hinata did the same with everyone else. Everyone was on their own two feet in no time, and they headed to the cottages.

"Naegi said it may look a bit different from the simulation," Hinata warned.

"I don't see any differences," Fuyuhiko said. "Just looks a bit more, I dunno, run down I guess?"

They walked psat the Titty Typhoon. The letter "H" was on the ground, sparking. There were a bunch of spotlights all piled out in the front of the building. They were all broken. 

"That place sure went down hill," Souda said jokingly.

"And guess who's going to have to fix it," Fuyuhiko said back.

"Aw come on! Really?" Souda moaned.

"I thought you liked fixing things," Akane said.

"Well yeah I do, but I'm just not feeling it right now," he said.

"I didn't mean you had to fix it now!" Fuyuhiko said. "When you feel up to it, you can fix whatever ya want."

Souda nodded his head in silence as they kept walking. They continued to walk until they came to the bridge. They all began to walk over it.

"Hey," Sonia began. "Hinata, don't you remember reading the pamphlet about the real Jabberwock Island? It said there had been a boat service to go to and from each island. It said that bridges weren't possible to make.""Oh yeah, I do remember now," Hinata responded. "Why would there be bridges here?"

Hinata thought for a moment. He had found a few differences since he had woken up, and Naegi had noticed them too. Hinata decided not to think too much about it. Akane stopped abruptly, and Hinata nearly ran into her. 

"Akane?" he said. 

Everyone in front of them turned around and watched Akane stare meticulously at the sky. Then she looked down and stomped her foot as hard as she could. Everyone looked around to see if anything was going to happen. After a minute, nothing happened and Akane shrugged and began to catch up with everyone.

"What was that about?" Souda asked.

"Just makin' sure it's real," she replied. "I want to make sure everything here is real before I get too comfortable."

Everyone nodded grimly in agreement. Everyone continued until they reached the cottages. Everyone found their pictures once again on their mailboxes. Hinata found that strange as well, considering the real Jabberwock Island hadn't held them before the simulation. Either way, the cottages with their pictures were their own cottages. Everything was in Hinata's room just as he had left it. His bed hadn't been made, and empty shelves were lined the corner of the room. The only difference was his old clothes were sitting on the bed. His shirt, tie, pants, and shoes. He ran to his drawers and found a bunch of new clothes in there, completely organized. He picked up a shirt and found that he was the same size. He then put the shirt back and ran to the closet, where a few outfits for fancier occasions were hung. 

"What the hell was all of that!?" Hinata heard Fuyuhiko say from outside of his door. Hinata ran out to find Fuyuhiko and Souda both holding their old clothes as well.

"These were on my bed and the drawers and closet are fully loaded with clothes!" Fuyuhiko exclaimed. "What's up with that?"

Sonia and Akane ran out of their cottages too. "Did you all find new garments in your cottages as well?" Sonia asked. 

"Yeah, I found my jumpsuit on the bed and the dresser was filled with a ton of stuff," Souda said. 

"This is pretty weird guys. Who would've left this stuff for us? The Future Foundation?" Akane questioned.

"Maybe, but we can't ask them can we?" Fuyuhiko said.

Hinata then remembered what Naegi had said about contacting them before he left. "Yes we can. The laptops are working and Naegi gave me a box with cell phones in it," Hinata said.

"Where's the box?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"Aw man, I left the box at the docks."

"Aren't the docks around the corner?"

"Oh.. Yeah, oops."

Hinata ran over and grabbed the box from the dock. He looked out in the direction where the boat carrying the Future Foundation had sailed away. It's a really peaceful place isn't it, he thought. He then began to think about everything that had happened, from start to finish. Then in a split second, an image of Teruteru being pulled away flashed into his mind. Hinata blinked and looked around, but then it happened again. He saw Peko holding Fuyuhiko tightly as swords were driven into her. It repeated again, but then he saw Mikan, then Gundam, and finally Chiaki. Hinata had to sit down to compose himself. His mind drifted over to Chiaki. He thought of how she was always kind and caring to everyone around her. He remembered how Komaeda set her up, and how she still took her "punishment" graciously. He thought of her looking directly at him with a small smile on her face immediately before she was crushed by the video game block. He remembered her encouraging him during the last trial to create his own future. That was the last time he saw her, and he knew he would never see her again. He broke down crying softly to himself. He had lived in a messed up world, and then he finally ended it with his classmates. But he knew deep down that the messed up world they had previously lived in, wasn't gone. It would just continue, with more suffering.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a bit of panicking and some other stuff.

Hinata finally composed himself and returned to his friends. He carried the white box to them. Hinata put the box down and knelt down to open it.

"These are all of them," Hinata said taking one out. "Everyone has their name on the lockscreen."

Everyone picked one up and turned them on. "Here's Saionji's," Akane announced. "Why does she have one? She's not even here."

"Naegi said they were for everyone in case anyone else woke up," Hinata answered.

"Oh, Souda, here. This is yours," Fuyuhiko said handing him the one that was in his hand.

Everyone searched through the phones until they found their own. They turned all of the other ones off and headed to the Tech station on the fourth island. When they got there, a laptop was sitting on a table front and center. 

"So does this thing work?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"Naegi said it did," Hinata responded. 

Souda went over and picked it up. He examined it thoroughly before opening it. When he did, he pressed a button and the screen lit up.

"It does," Souda said.  
"What are those?" Akane said pointing at the screen, which had lit up with one single name.

"They're contacts.. I think," Souda said. He clicked on the one labeled "Future Foundation" and all of their faces lit up on the screen. Souda jumped back, and so did the Souda on the screen. 

"I think it's a video call," Sonia said. Souda quickly clicked the end button. 

"So we nearly just called the Future Foundation. Great," Fuyuhiko said sarcastically. 

"The rest say laptops numbers two through six, I guess this is number one then?" Hinata said looking at the bottom of the laptop, which had the label "Laptop 1." 

"The rest are over here!" Sonia called from farther inside the tech shop. She was standing in front of a box with four extra laptops in it. Everyone took a laptop from the box.

"So there are six then?" Fuyuhiko said. Everyone nodded. "How about we each take one, and leave the extra in the restaurant? And how about we continue meeting in the restaurant each morning too?" Everyone agreed and took a laptop as everyone headed back to their rooms. 

\--------------------------------

Everyone stopped by their cottages. Their own cottages looked perfect, both inside and out. However, everyone who had died during the simulation had run down cottages. Souda went inside a few of them, and found that they were uninhabitable. Hinata went back in his cottage for most of the day. Akane went for a walk to see what was different about the island, and Fuyuhiko was walking to the hospital to check on everyone in their pods. Hinata went through all of the clothes that were left in his cottage. Some of the clothes he remembered owning before he began attending Kibogamine Academy. However, some of them he had never seen before. Everything in the drawers was completely organized, with everything in it's own section of the drawers. There were suits and a few other things hanging in his closet. Hinata looked on his dresser and found a few coins on the dresser. He remembered that he had put monocoins there during the simulation.

As Hinata was about to look through more of his stuff, he heard a cry. "Hey! Is anyone here? I need help!" It sounded like Fuyuhiko. He burst out of his cottage and looked around. What he found was Fuyuhiko trying to carry an unconscious Akane. Sonia and Souda both came out of their cottages to see what the racket was. "What the hell is going on?!" Souda yelled coming over to Fuyuhiko. "Why are you carrying Akane?!"

"Because she's unconscious you-" Fuyuhiko began.

"Why is she unconscious!?" Hinata interrupted. 

"I don't know!" Fuyuhiko yelled.

"What happened?!" Sonia said.

"I was walking and I saw Akane on the bridge coming back over here. I had seen her about three times looking at a bunch of different places and she seemed sad while looking at them. The second time, she looked like she was going to cry. Then the last time, she did start to cry. She fell on her knees and sobbed, really loudly too. I ran over to her, and she hugged me, but when I asked her what was wrong she just kept sobbing and then she passed out. She did say something about Nekomaru though. I think. I couldn't exactly hear her," Fuyuhiko explained. "But I still need help with getting Akane to her cottage. I dragged her here from the bridge."

Souda and Hinata took her off of him and wrapped her arms around their shoulders. Fuyuhiko took her legs and Sonia unlocked Akane's door. They put her on the bed and began looking for a washcloth in her bathroom.

"Should we call the Future Foundation?" Souda asked motioning to the laptop. 

"Get them on there," Fuyuhiko said as he shifted through her cabinet trying to find the washcloth. 

Souda began typing on the computer and clicked on the Future Foundation to call them. Sonia checked her pulse. Hinata looked at her skeptically, and she noticed. She nodded letting him know she was alright. Fuyuhiko still couldn't find the washcloth so Sonia then joined in and helping him look for it. Hinata ran over to see if the computer was working. In nearly a second after he went over, Naegi's face appeared on the screen. He appeared to still be on the boat.

"Hi everyone," Naegi said. 

"I assume there's a reason you're calling considering it's only been a couple hour since we left?" Togami said coming into view.

"Uh, yeah," Souda said. "Akane fell unconscious and we don't know why."

"What?" Togami said. "What the hell happened?"

Fuyuhiko came over to the laptop and came into view, leaving Sonia to tend for Akane. Fuyuhiko explained what happened and the two Future Foundation members listened. They didn't seem bothered as he explained. 

"She probably had a panic attack," Naegi said. "Something triggered a memory that overwhelmed her."

"But wouldn't she have remembered all of that?" Souda asked. 

"She was probably trying not to think about it. Otherwise it had been a memory from your time in the simulation that she hadn't remembered right away, considering that was what the Forced Shutdown was supposed to do," Togami explained.

"Sounds like it was some kind of memory that had to do with Nekomaru," Kirigiri said from off screen. 

"Yeah, well I figured," Fuyuhiko said.

"So what should we do to help her?" Hinata asked.

"Put a washcloth on her head until she wakes up. When she does, make sure that someone is there to help and comfort her. We were hoping this wouldn't happen so we didn’t think the buddy system was necessary. But for the next couple weeks, try to stay with at least one other person for the day," Kirigiri said. 

"If there are any other problems, contact us again, okay?" Naegi said before powering the chat off. 

"So now we wait I guess?" Fuyuhiko said. After saying that, the silence began. Everyone found a seat somewhere in Akane's cottage. No one said anything. Fuyuhiko was sitting in a large chair in the corner of the room looking tense. Sonia was sitting in a window seat by her bed, looking out the window. Souda and Hinata had found other chairs and sat down. Akane then began to stir, and everyone jumped up from their seats. Akane put her hand on her head and groaned.

"Wh.. What happened..?" she asked, trying to sit up.

"Uh.. You sorta freaked and passed out.." Souda said, helping her sit up. Akane gave him a strange look.

"All I remember is going for a walk, and I began walking back here.. I don't remember coming in here though.." she said. 

"Yeah, you broke down sobbing, passed out, and then I kinda dragged you back here," Fuyuhiko said. Akane looked down for a moment. 

"Why was I crying?" she asked. Everyone was uncomfortable, and said nothing. 

"We don't know," Sonia finally said. "But you did mention something about Nekomaru.."

Silence filled the room after she finished saying that. Akane looked down, just like everyone else. 

"I miss him," Akane said quietly. Everyone looked up at her. They were all surprised with just how quiet and upset she had sounded. When Hinata looked over at her, there were tears streaming down her face, which was unlike he had ever seen her, except for when she had the Despair Disease. She put a hand over her mouth, and Sonia came over and gave her a hug. 

"I miss him too," Sonia said. "I think we all miss someone. I miss Gundam, Fuyuhiko probably misses Peko." She looked up at a hurt Fuyuhiko. She mouthed an apology to him. He nodded and looked back down. "We all miss someone, and we're all going to help each other out, okay?" Akane nodded.

"Thanks Sonia," she said. 

Everyone continued to comfort a distressed Akane. Hinata was surprised to see Akane as upset as she was. Even when Nekomaru had saved her from Monokuma, she hadn't cried. She wasn't even all that worried about him. He was worried for her, for all of them in fact. If this was how life was going to be from now on, he didn't know if he would be able to stand it. They would have to wait to find out if their friends would ever return. They would have to watch out for each other. But most of all, they would have to endure all sorts of despair to reach their new future. Hinata wondered if they would make it through. Hinata thought about this as he went back to his cottage that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to write this. I've been in Tech Week all week for our production of Mary Poppins (opening night is tonight!!) I've also been trying to map out the direction the story will take. That's the reason it's so short. I had a bit of writers block for this chapter because I know more about the middle of the story than the beginning, if that makes sense lol. Hopefully the story will pick up a bit next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story has finally begun. (blood mention)

Sixth months had passed and not much had happened. The most eventful days were the ones when someone had a panic attack, or when the Future Foundation called. Even then, it still bored everyone. Day after day, everyone expected someone to wake up, and make everyone just a little bit happier. Just as well, Naegi always says, "Someone should be up next week," or "I promise they'll wake up soon!" It usually depresses everyone even more. Sonia, Fuyuhiko, and Akane have been anxious, while Souda couldn't care less if anyone woke up. He just wanted some excitement. But there was one day that scared everyone. Sonia had broken down crying, and she nearly fainted. Souda was the only thing keeping her from slipping into unconsciousness. However, the Future Foundation had some terrible news. 

Everyone was gathered in the restaurant when a video call from the Future Foundation came in. It had beome a daily thing for them to call. Naegi appeared on the screen with a big smile on his face. Everyone talked for a little while. Naegi had then began to talk about their friends.

"I wanted to talk to you about your comatose friends," he began. "I've told you guys week after week that your friends would come back soon, but this time, I really think they will come back soon."

"BS!" Fuyuhiko said. 

"Huh?" Naegi said confused.

"Like you said, you've been telling us for weeks and weeks and nothing has happened," Souda said, backing Fuyuhiko up.

"You guys have to hope for the best okay? Of course I might be wrong, but just have a little faith in me."

"I have a question," Akane spoke up. "Nekomaru, will he wake up as a robot like he died?"

Naegi looked down uncomfortably, suddenly interested in his thumbs. "I, uh, I don't know."

"You don't know if he'll come back like a robot or not? I thought you guys knew everything about this," Akane said.

"I mean.. Well.. Togami.. Uh," Naegi started.

"Togami what?" Fuyuhiko said. "If it's bad news, say it like you're taking off a bandage."

"Okay.. Togami doesn't think he's going to come back at all," Naegi said quickly.

Akane's jaw dropped. Everyone else looked at Naegi with stunned expressions. It reminded Hinata of the night Nekomaru sacrificed himself to keep Akane alive, as well as the last trial when the Future Foundation told them everything. This news wasn't as frightening, but it was a close shot. 

"Wh-what?!" Akane stuttered.

"i-it's not definite! But Togami doesn't think that he will come back, but Kirigiri thinks he'll be fine!" Naegi said nervously.

"What do you think?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"Well.. I agree with Kirigiri. Whether he's a robot or not, I think he'll make it out of this! I mean, you guys definitely did."

A silence settled over everyone. Everyone had a solemn look on their faces. 

"Don't give up," Naegi said, breaking the silence. There was almost a hint of urgency in his voice. "Everyone should come backs soon, I promise." Naegi finished and ended the chat.

Sonia spoke up first. "Akane? Are you alright?"

Akane lifted her head and looked around. "Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, Togami doesn't think that he's going to return. Did I hear that wrong?" Sonia asked.

"Yeah but Naegi and Kirigiri think he's going to be fine," Akane said a bit defensively. "I choose to believe in what they said instead of what that jerk Togami said." 

"I'm very sorry for saying that Akane," Sonia apologized. 

"Nah, it's alright. I'm sure Ol' Man Nidai will be back soon," Akane said, back to her cheery self. "Well, imma head out. I wanna train a little before lunch. See ya guys!" Akane ran out the door and towards the supermarket. 

\------------------------------------------

The next three days were the same as usual. Go to breakfast, do what you want, have lunch, do whatever, have dinner, bed. But one day was unfortunately different. Hinata stepped out of his cottage and began walking towards the restaurant, per usual. However on his way, he saw a familiar white-haired figure walking around, looking confused. Hinata stopped in his tracks, horrified and stunned. He looked around quickly and found a bush to hide behind. He ran and ducked watching Komaeda stumble around. Komaeda looked around and finally decided to walk away from the cottages. As soon as he went away, Hinata jumped up and ran as fast as he could, tripping on the way. He burst through the doors and up the stairs. By the time he reached the top, he was out of breath. Everyone stopped talking and looked over at him.

"Hinata why are ya so outta breath?" Souda asked. 

"… Komaeda… outside… hide," he answered while trying to catch his breath.

"Huh? Did you just say Komaeda's outside!?" Akane asked. Hinata nodded and everyone ran to the window. 

"Crap, he's right! There he is!" Fuyuhiko said pointing to Komaeda who had began to walk back towards the hotel. 

"Ah what to we do?!" Souda said pulling his hat farther down onto his face. 

"Lock the doors?" Akane suggested.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Souda said. Him and Akane began running towards the stairs. 

"Wait! Guys, he's bound to find out that we're all here at some point!" Sonia said calling after them. "Let's just see what he does and call the Future Foundation while we wait."

Souda shrugged, but gave in. He grabbed the laptop and began calling them. After a minute or two, Naegi answered while Komaeda kept wandering around. 

"Hey everyone! I was just about to call you guys! What's up?" Naegi asked.

"Komaeda's walking around outside," Hinata said urgently. 

"H-huh?" he said, caught off guard. 

"Right outside. I was heading over here and I saw him. He looks extremely confused. I don't think he noticed me, but I'm not sure," Hinata explained. 

"Well-" Naegi was interrupted by a loud crashing. Everyone looked back and saw Komaeda as he walked up the stairs. He stood there in the same clothes all of the other boys had been in when they had woken up. He held his left arm with his right hand that was partially soaked in blood. Hinata assumed the crashing sound was Komaeda knocking into something. 

"Hey, Komaeda," Souda said hesitantly. 

"Wh-what's.. What's happening..?" Komaeda asked confused. "Where am I?"

"You're in the restaurant in the hotel. Komaeda you should sit down-" Hinata was interrupted. 

"Who are all of you?" he yelled. He seemed almost frightened. 

"Y-you don't know who we are?" Fuyuhiko asked, stunned. 

"You all look familiar but I.. I.." Komaeda trailed off. All of a sudden, he let go of his bleeding arm as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed in front of all of them.

Fuyuhiko whipped around and faced the computer. Naegi stared in shock at the events that had just unfolded as everyone else ran over to Komaeda. "Any idea what just happened?" Fuyuhiko yelled.

"I don't, but Togami might. I'll be right back," Naegi said standing up. His voice could be heard calling Togami from offscreen. Fuyuhiko ran over to everyone else to where Komaeda lay. The cut on his arm was just a small gash, but it was bleeding quite a bit. Sonia felt his forehead and Souda checked his pulse.

"He's burning up!" Sonia called. 

"He still has a pulse though, so I guess that's a good thing," Souda said. 

Naegi returned to the screen with Togami. "Is he okay?" Naegi asked.

Everyone turned and looked at the screen. "Does it look like he's okay?" Fuyuhiko said angrily.

"Tell me again what happened. Naegi here rushed everything," Togami said impatiently. Hinata explained once again. When he was done, Togami then made the verdict. "He shouldn't have been in there by himself. He would have needed someone in there to bring him back to reality and let him know what was going on. You all had each other, he didn't have anyone. He probably just fell back into a coma, thanks to you. Didn't we tell you to check the pod room each day?"

"And we have been," Hinata said. 

"How long did you guys stay in there?" Togami asked.

"Each of us stayed about an hour when it was our turn," Sonia answered.

"All day? Every day?" Togami interrogated.

"Every day, but only one person went for one hour each day. None of us had gone over there today," Akane said.

"All day. You guys should be there all day. Otherwise set some kind of alarm up, or something, Either way, someone needs to be there when another wakes up."

"We can't set up an alarm, and we sure as hell can't stay there all day!" Fuyuhiko said angrily. 

"Wait, Togami," Naegi spoke up. "There's an alarm already set up. It just needs to be turned on."

"Okay then turn on the alarm," Togami said to everyone. 

"It's really loud though, so they should turn it off at night and someone should sleep there overnight," Naegi said.

"Okay then tell them, not me," Togami said annoyed. 

Naegi explained how to set the alarm system up, and then explained how to wake Komaeda up. 

"It might take a couple days for him to be totally back into it, but he'll be back eventually. Please take our advice, and we'll call later on, okay?" Naegi said. Then, he powered off the chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a while to write this, but I'm glad I did! I didn't really proofread it so if there are errors, that's why. Sorry haha. But the story is finally picking up so that's good. Anyways, hope you enjoyed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I would recommend paying attention to the big tag that says "Graphic Depictions of Violence" for this chapter.

Everyone took Komaeda to the hospital on the third island. They put him in a room and deemed it his own until Souda could fix his cottage. There was a lot of machinery in the room and there was one large dresser on one side of the room. The bed was pushed to the farthest back wall. There was a small closet opposite to the dresser. Sonia found some bandages in a drawer and wrapped Komaeda's arm. There was also a bandage still sitting on his left arm, which Hinata assumed was the area in which he took his own arm off and replaced it with Junko's. He wondered if he still had her arm or not. He decided to push the thought away and focus on trying to wake him up, though he wasn't exactly thrilled to do so. Considering all of the bad stuff he had done to them, he could care less if they got Komaeda up. They sat Komaeda up in the bed and put Togami's plan into motion. Souda put a wristband around Komaeda's left wrist. There was a small wire attached to it with a button at the end. Everyone stood on the left side of the bed, except for Hinata, who stood at the end of it holding the button. Hinata clicked the button once, sending a shock through the wire and to Komaeda's arm. 

Hinata pressed the button a few times, but there was no reaction. Hinata pressed the button one last time, and Komaeda's eyes flickered open. He looked around at everyone standing next to his bed. They all gave him sheepish grins and tiny smiles as his eyes scanned over them.

"So you're all still alive.. Great," Komaeda said sarcastically. 

"Nice to see you too," Fuyuhiko said. Sonia reached over and unstrapped the wristband and Hinata handed her the button. Komaeda eyed them all with a suspicious yet malicious expression on his face. Souda noticed.

"What's wrong with you?" he said.

Komaeda immediately snapped out of it. "Absolutely nothing."

They put all of the tools away and grabbed Komaeda's real clothes, which Sonia had grabbed before arriving at the hospital. Hinata threw them on the bed.

"Get dressed and come downstairs," he said bitterly, walking out of the room with everyone else. 

"Really? This is how you're going to treat me?" Komaeda said, annoyance clear in his voice. "I passed out in front of you, and here you are leaving me for my own. I am the lowest kind of trash, but you're not much better than I."

Everyone turned around. "Excuse me?" Fuyuhiko said. 

Komaeda then stood up from his bed and began walking towards them. "We were all part of Ultimate Despair. The things we did were absolutely terrible, and we were filled with the worst type of despair. Why would someone like that be considered anything but trash?"  
Everyone stared at him in shock. In the past half hour, he had showed up, passed out, and woken up. No one knew how he was functioning this well. He walked straight up to Hinata, staring at him with hatred in his eyes.

"That's why I did what I did to your precious Chiaki," Komaeda said. Hinata stared in shock. He couldn't believe he actually said that. "I did it to help the Future Foundation, which, by the looks of it, you guys have not done. I tried to bring hope to the world, and instead, all of you disgusting pieces of trash are still here." He practically spat out the last sentence. "This, believe it or not, is probably the first time a plan I created, failed. And I can't believe it! You five, of all people in the world, are the ones who thwarted my plan! You pieces of trash.. And, don't get me wrong, I wasn't planning on hurting poor Chiaki. She was the only beacon of hope on this whole island, and it's a shame that I ended up killing poor Chiaki. But it is what it is, right Hinata?" he said smugly. Hinata felt like he could cry right on the spot. He didn't have a care in the world about killing Chiaki. He felt like he could scream, but when he opened his mouth, no words came out. "Well, of course, there's always.. Plan B.." Komaeda pushed Hinata to the floor, and punched Souda square in the nose. He cried out in pain, and stumbled into Sonia and Fuyuhiko, who were behind him. Akane kicked Komaeda in knees, making him stumble, but he recovered quickly and punched her stomach. She bent over in pain, and Komaeda kicked her in the shoulder. Sonia and Fuyuhiko brought Souda into the hallway to try to tend for him out there. Komaeda saw them and ran outside. He kicked Fuyuhiko before grabbing Sonia and lifting her against the wall, his hand around her neck. She began wheezing, losing all ability to breath. Fuyuhiko tried, and failed, to get up to try to help her. Instead, Hinata stood up and ran out into the hallway. He kicked Komaeda in the stomach, causing him to let go of Sonia. She fell on the floor wheezing, and Akane and Fuyuhiko went over to her. Hinata pushed Komaeda against the wall, and put the shocking device they had used to wake him up around his neck, with the button in in Hinata's hand.

"Komaeda, I'm going to say this once, and then I'm going to give you one chance to change your mind," Hinata said, rage making his voice shake. "We denounced our previous despair filled lives. We're trying to create a new hope filled future, and we were making decent progress, living peacefully amongst each other, and now you're here, causing us despair." At this, Komaeda practically flinched. "We are moving towards our hope of a future we are creating for ourselves. Are you going to help us, or am I going to press this button?" Hinata couldn't believe that he was honestly doing this. 

"You're not going to press it. I know you. But I give in," Komaeda said. "I won't try to kill you guys anymore, promise." Hinata removed the tool from his neck and bent down to help tend to Souda. Komaeda bent down to help too, but Souda gave him a really dirty look, and backed away. 

"Get dressed, Komaeda," Hinata said, bitterly. Komaeda nodded and went back to his room. Fuyuhiko walked over and helped Hinata bring Souda into another empty hospital room. Akane rubbed Sonia's back as she continued to wheeze. Hinata came back with a bottle of water and helped Sonia stand up. Then, he handed her the water, and she chugged the whole thing. 

"I just called the Foundation," Fuyuhiko said coming back from Souda's room. "Naegi and a few of the others are coming to help tend to everyone, especially Souda. They said to care for it like a bloody nose for the time being. So I left a huge box of tissues right next to the bed. I'll go check on him in a second."

Hinata and Akane brought Sonia to one of the other hospital rooms to rest. The Future Foundation showed up about an hour later. It was Naegi, Togami, Asahina, Hagakure, and two nurses Naegi said agreed to help out. One nurse went to check on Souda, and another went to Sonia. Asahina and Hagakure went into Komaeda's room to try to calm him down. Naegi and Togami discussed things together. One of the nurses then stepped out of Souda's room. 

"His nose is broken, but he's fine," she said. Akane then began rubbing her shoulder that Komaeda had kicked. The same nurse went over and checked to make sure she was alright. Asahina and Hagakure stepped out of Komaeda's room. 

"He's lost it," Asahina said, shrugging. Everyone looked at her questionably. 

"He tried to kill you guys because he couldn't do it in the simulation. He says he won't try it again, but who knows," Hagakure said. 

"I think that's the most intelligent thing you've ever said, Hagakure," Togami said. 

"Very funny, Togami," Hagakure retorted.

Togami gave him a skeptical look. He obviously didn’t believe him, but shrugged and dropped the subject. The nurse from Sonia's room stepped out of the room with her hand on Sonia's back as she led her out of her room. 

"She's alright, but she won't be talking for at least another day, just for safety measures," the nurse said. Fuyuhiko grabbed a chair from an empty room and brought it into the hallway for her to sit. Sonia lightly rubbed her neck as she sat down. 

"I'm actually surprised that he tried that," Naegi said. 

"I'm not," Fuyuhiko said angrily. The nurse that had brought Sonia out of her room checked Fuyuhiko's upper chest, where he had been kicked. When the nurses finished checking everyone, the room began discussing certain matters. The nurses were going to stay for the next two days to make sure everyone was alright. The Future Foundation would stay and monitor for the next three days and help out where needed. Komaeda was not allowed to leave the hospital, and Asahina and Hagakure were to watch him and get what he needed. Souda was to stay in the hospital all day tomorrow. Then he would be free to do what he wanted, to an extent. Sonia wasn't allowed to talk for all of tomorrow either. Akane and Fuyuhiko had to ice where they had been kicked and punched before they went to bed for the next week. Hinata was the only one who didn't have a specific thing to do. He knew it was going to be a chaotic week.

\------------------------------------------------

Just like he was instructed, Komaeda didn't leave the hospital, and Asahina and Hagakure claim that he's calmed down. Souda was let out on the second day, and he got right to work on the cottages the next day. Even with a broken nose, he couldn't be stopped from working on things. Fuyuhiko and Akane listened to the Future Foundation and iced their injuries before bed every night. The Future Foundation (not including Kirigiri or Fukawa) stayed and did the work that Souda and Komaeda would have had to do if they hadn't been in the hospital. Sonia didn't utter a word for the whole week. No one really knew why considering she only had to be quiet for a day. She claims her throat still bothered her, and she didn't want to push it, but Hinata didn't buy it. Everyone (not including Komaeda) brought their sleeping friends their own clothes and put them next to their pods so they could change out of the hospital clothes if they wanted. Souda decided to put off working on Komaeda's cottage considering what he did to everyone, so instead, he began Ibuki and Gundam's. When he went into Gundam's cottage, he found his four hamsters, and gave them to Sonia to care for. He finished Ibuki's quickly, and Gundam's was close to finished by the end of the week. He began Komaeda's cottage later on in the week, but he didn't do much. Then, he ran over to the hospital with Togami and Naegi to set the alarm up in the pod room. The Future Foundation, along with the nurses, soon left the island. However, before they left, they deemed Komaeda ready to leave the hospital. His cottage still wasn't ready though. In a matter of two weeks, his cottage was ready, along with Gundam's, Koizumi's, Mikan's, and Peko's. Souda was working nonstop, and often missed meals. Sonia had begun to talk again, though her voice was really raspy for a few days. Akane was still complaining about some bruises for a few days. 

The day was June 24. Summer was approaching and even more heat would soon be piling on. Sonia remembered that it was an important day, and called a meeting after breakfast with everyone, except for one.

When Souda returned to his cottage that night, exhausted from working on Nidai's cottage, he found everyone in his own with a bunch of decorations, and a banner that read "Happy Birthday!"

Everyone yelled "Happy Birthday Souda!" when he walked through the door. Sonia, Hinata, Akane, Fuyuhiko and even Komaeda were all standing in his cottage with open arms and smiles on their faces. Souda hadn't known what day it was, so he hadn't even realized it was his birthday. He jumped back in surprise when Sonia came up and gave him a huge hug. "Happy birthday!" she said pulling away. "Sorry this was all we could do. There weren't many decorations, and the Titty Typhoon isn't totally in shape yet, so we decided to have it here!" She was beaming with excitement.

"It doesn't matter, I love it!" Souda said happily. "It still looks great, and I can't believe you guys remembered! To be totally honest, I didn't even remember!" Everyone laughed.

"Different environment, same Souda," Fuyuhiko said laughing.

There were five presents sitting on his bed, each wrapped neatly, except for one. There was a small table set up in the back with drinks and some food. There were balloons attached to each side. Akane was standing at the table, eating like there was no tomorrow, while Fuyuhiko and Hinata talked to each other. Sonia had disappeared while Komaeda stood in the corner by himself, not really doing anything. Sonia reappeared a moment later with a cake that had nineteen candles on top. It read "Happy 19th Souda!" Komaeda hit the lights and they all began singing "Happy Birthday." He blew out the candles and cut the cake, having a great time. After a little while of talking, Komaeda knocked on the wall a couple times. Everyone looked over at him. "I, uh, I have something to say," he said awkwardly. "I wanted to apologize for what I did a couple weeks ago. I know your throat healed, and your nose healed too, but I still feel kinda bad about it."

"What's with this change of heart dude?" Fuyuhiko said. "I've never seen you feel bad about anythin'. What's up?"  
"I did a lot of thinking those three days.. And the Future Foundation did a lot of talking.. They told me about what you guys have been up to for the past six months, and I realized I was wrong. I'm sorry. I'll try and help out around here instead of break you all down."

"This is not like you at all, Ko," Akane said. 

"… Well, you guys are working towards the hope of a new future you all want, and I'm bringing you down. I have no place saying this, considering I'm such trash, but can you let me help you? I've wanted to bring hope about in the world since I was little, and had my own hopes crushed. So please, let me help?"

Hinata turned around. "It's up to you, birthday boy."

Souda looked at Komaeda skeptically. His usual intentions were malicious, but this was the first time it seemed his intentions were to help everyone. Souda didn't know whether he should trust him or not, but if he was ever going to, now seemed like the perfect time. 

"Yeah," Souda said. "You can help us. As long as you're not insane about it though. Otherwise, I'll tie ya up again."

Everyone laughed. "Thanks," Komaeda said, graciously. 

"Alright, alright, there's still one more important thing we hafta do," Akane said. "Presents! Open em, Souda!"

Souda decided to open his presents, and he loved all of them. Even the lazily wrapped conch shell Komaeda gave him. Souda picked it up and sand came pouring out. He didn't care though. They had gone to a bigger extent to celebrate his birthday more than anyone ever had. They all had a great rest of the night, and Souda really felt like he had known them for all nineteen years of his life. He couldn't have had a better birthday, he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoyed writing this chapter, but considering Komaeda is one of my favorite characters, the first part was a bit hard to write haha. Hope you enjoyed! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There may or may not be ship feels in this chapter.

Sonia sat at a desk in Gundam's newly furbished cottage days later with the hamsters in front of her. There was food and water out in front of them in bowls. None of them had eaten anything. The door to Gundam's cottage was left slightly open. Sonia was becoming frustrated with the hamsters.

"Oh please! Just eat something!" she cried. 

Sonia thumped her head on the desk, but the hamsters still ceased to do anything.

"I don’t know what else to do!" she yelled. "You haven't eaten anything in two days, and you haven't drank anything in three! You need food and water! So please, just eat!"

Once again, the hamsters do not move. Sonia bursts into tears.

"I just don't know what to do," she said "I've looked through all the books in the library, everything Gundam left in here, I used as much of the internet that I had access too, I even tried to remember every word Gundam said about hamsters and nothing! I just don't know! It's been six months! There was never this much of a problem with food. Or.. Or anything for that matter! I have had enough to deal with these past six months. With everyone freaking out on each other, and Komaeda coming back, waking up screaming and in tears from nightmares that are actually memories from the past, and being told that all of my classmates are going to all come back and they never do! I don't need this! Please! Just eat something!!

Sonia had begun to work herself up, and she sobbed even louder. Jum-P then jumped off the desk and began to head for the door.

"Jum-P!" she called. She ran after the small hamster and knelt down to grab him, but she missed. He kept running towards the door, which had begun to open.

"Jum-P!" she called again. She hadn't paid attention to the open door until two hands, one wrapped in bandages, bent down and picked up the small creature. She looked up abruptly to find Gundam looking back down at her. Sonia's eyes widened as the tall figure loomed over her. "G-gundam?!" she cried.

Gundam put the hamster in his scarf without saying anything. Then he knelt down in front of her. After staring at him stunned, Sonia grabs him and pulls him into an embrace. He is taken back for a moment, but then he hesitantly puts his arms around her. Sonia continued to cry, but a lot quieter.

"Gundam…" she said softly. She pulled him tighter, and he hesitantly did the same. They pull out of the embrace, but Sonia lightly holds onto a piece of his scarf. 

"Gundam," she said softly for the third time. "It really is you right?" she dropped the scarf and delicately ran her fingers over his face. "This time you're not a simulation or a computer image, right?!"

Gundam lightly grabbed Sonia's wrists, pulling them away from his face. "Don't touch me. I'm afraid you will get hurt. Even back from my home realm, I'm still dangerous. I'm not fit for a human to touch, for there is still poison running in my veins."

"It is you!" Sonia cried, hugging Gundam once more. He jumped back in surprise again, considering what he had just told her. He hesitantly hugged her back, just like before. They pulled away, but Sonia lightly held onto his arm. 

"I've missed you so much," she said in a whisper. She leaned on Gundam's chest, and he tried to put his arm around her, as if to comfort her. However, he had no idea what he was doing. 

"Everything has been so chaotic on the island. We've been getting sick over memories, and Komaeda's here! He attacked us all and I couldn't talk for a week!"

"What type of devious creature is he? It would only take a truly magical being to take your voice from you. However, I knew Komaeda was disturbed in some way," Gundam said. 

Sonia laughed. "Gundam, he tried to strangle me to death. He choked me, and I lost my voice for a while. He's not a magical being. You're the only immortal being on this island."

"Oh," Gundam said. He used his other hand to pull his scarf up over his bright red face. 

"But you're here now, and you're the only good thing that's happened in the past sixth months! Oh! I almost forgot!" Sonia jumped up from the floor and grabbed the remaining hamsters from the desk. Gundam stood up and followed her. She then turned around, and put the three devas into his palms. He took Jum-P out of his scarf and put him in his palms with the others. 

"My Four Dark Devas of Destruction!" he bellowed. "You seem to have missed me!" ]

"They did! They've been having trouble eating, especially lately. They haven't had anything to eat or drink in three days!" Sonia said. As she said this, Gundam placed them near the food and water, and they began eating vigorously. They sat down on Gundam's bed. "They really missed you. I think they've been feeling the same way I have for the past six months: like I was being tortured day after day."

"It cannot have been that bad," Gundam said. "Unless.. Was there another deadly encounter?"

Sonia nodded. "You weren't here for it." The two of them walked to her bed and sat down. Sonia leaned onto Gundam's chest, and he hesitantly began to put his arm around her, and he finally did when she said, "You can put your arm around me! I won't die!" He used his other arm to pull his scarf up over his bright red face. 

"So after you uh.." Sonia began

"Yeah," Gundam said. 

"We were let out of the funhouse and returned back to health. Afterwards, Komaeda became obsessed with finding out who the traitor was," Sonia said.

"Who was the blasphemous one?" Gundam asked. 

Sonia lightly slapped his leg. "I'm getting to that!" she laughed. "Anyways, he threatened to blow up the entire island unless the traitor revealed themselves. They hadn't revealed themselves to him, and Komaeda nearly blew up the islands. He filled a truck with fireworks and tricked us by telling us they were bombs from the army base on the fifth island. All of us thought there were really bombs there. However, after we realized we had been tricked, we smelled something burning in the warehouse. We ran over to find it on fire and Komaeda was dead inside. He had a spear in his stomach, a knife in his left hand, and gashes all along his arms and legs. There was tape over his mouth as well. 

"Who had killed the hopeful one?"

"He used his luck and the traitor had poisoned him on accident. His plan was to use his luck and have the traitor kill him, but no one would know who. He planned on everyone getting the culprit wrong, and we all would have died, while the traitor went free. He knew we were all formerly part of Ultimate Despair, and wanted us dead. But instead, the traitor revealed herself, and died."

"Who was the traitor?"

"Chiaki Nanami. She was the traitor.. That sounds so harsh considering she was the good guy, and we were all the bad. But now she's dead, and she can't come back like you and Komaeda have."

"And why is that?"

"She was an AI, artificial intelligence, who was a part of the simulation. The Future Foundation, the organization that was trying to help us that had also created her, said they would see if they could ever bring her back, but it's not their main priority at the moment. They're still dealing with some other members of Ultimate Despair. You know what that is right?"

"Yes," Gundam answered. 

"Hey.. Didn't you say you completed the Final Dead Room like Komaeda?" Sonia asked.

"Yes, it was a rather laborious task, but I, Gundam Tanaka, ruler of the future empire, completed it with ease!"

"So, you knew we were Ultimate Despair then, right?"

"Yes I did."

"Do you.. Remember it yet? You know, being a part of it?"

"Sonia, I know and remember things from across dozens of realms, worlds, and even dimensions! You really think I don't remember such a minuscule detail!?"

Sonia had a smug look plastered on her face. "No," she said. 

"Alright, fine. I don't remember much of our previously despair-filled lives. My head is foggy with the plague of drowsiness."

"By the end of today, I'm quite sure you will remember at least a little. It was the same for all of us… Gundam, I have a question for you."

Gundam perked up and looked at her. "Hm?"

"You knew we were part of Ultimate Despair at some point.. Did you tell anyone?"

Gundam shook his head no. 

"Why didn't you?"  
He looked back at the ground. 

"Did you kill Nidai because you knew?"

Gundam didn't look up, but he had almost a hurt expression on his face.

"Gundam, I don't think you're a malicious person. I also don't think you're a psycho, like Komaeda. I didn't think you would hurt a thing.. These are all reasons why I was absolutely stunned when you revealed that you killed Nidai… "

"Gundam," Sonia put her hand on his shoulder, and he looks up at her. "I truly think you're a good person."

Gundam gives her a small smile with tears in his eyes. 

"That's not why I killed Nidai. There was too much suffering, and neither of us could stand it, and I've seen a lot. We fought to save the precious lives of everyone else. I obviously won, and you're still here. It took one life to save many more at that point. That was one of the last things Nidai had said before his ending came. I also didn't tell anyone the blasphemous news because I didn't want to hurt any of you."

Sonia took her hand off of his shoulder, smiling a bit. "Did it not hurt you?"

"Me? Hurt by that? Ha! Of course not! I have seen and heard much worse things than this! It is miniscule, and would never hurt a being such as I!"

"It crushed you didn't it?" Sonia asked putting her hand back on his shoulder.

"A little, yeah," he answered sheepishly. 

"You are a good person, Gundam."

Gundam gives her a glad expression, and Sonia puts her arms around him. He does the same, and this time, with pure confidence. Sonia begins to cry softly. 

"Gundam.. Please.. Don't leave me again.. Don't ever leave me again.. "

He looks down at Sonia, laying on his chest. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed by everything. Regardless, he answered. "Never," He said softly, as tears streamed down his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to write some Sondam lol. I've been really busy so the next chapter might not be up for a little while. I would like to also say that I do not usually proof read anything so if there are any mistakes, I apologize. Also, please don't ask how Gundam got up and got dressed without any issues, that's being addressed next chapter, promise. Hope you guys enjoyed :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: many death mentions; dying implied

Everyone was gathered in the restaurant for lunch, excluding Sonia and Fuyuhiko. Hinata sat there with Akane, Souda, and Komaeda, but no one said anything. Everyone sat at the table and on the counter, as an awkward silence fell upon all of them. 

"So.." Komaeda said, trying to break the silence. "Anyone know where Sonia and Fuyuhiko are?"

Everyone shrugged or shook their heads no. Komaeda nodded in agreement. For another fifteen minutes, no one had shown up. Then, the door banged shut, and Fuyuhiko bounded up the stairs. 

"Hi everyone," he said giving everyone a small wave.

Everyone waved hi. "Where were you?" Hinata asked. 

"I was taking my shift at the pod room. Thought I told you guys," he said. 

"Yeah, but it ended a half hour ago," Souda said. "What took ya so long to get here?"

"There was a little.. Situation.. Uh, someone woke up.."

Everyone perked up at his statement. "Wh-who was it?" Akane asked hopefully. 

"It was.. Gundam.. He woke up," Fuyuhiko said. 

Everyone looked up at Fuyuhiko with gaping expressions. Souda had a hurt look on his face, however. Hinata was the first to speak up.

"Was he okay? Did he do anything?" he asked.

"Besides refuse my help standing up, no," Fuyuhiko said. "He claimed that a 'being such as himself could stand on his own' or something like that." 

"Sounds like something he would say," Akane said. 

"Then where is he now?" Komaeda asked. "I helped him up, helped get him dressed a bit, and sent him Sonia's way. I don't think they're going to show up until dinner, but who knows," Fuyuhiko replied.

At that, Hinata and Komaeda jumped up and grabbed a box of subs from the refrigerator. They dropped them on the table, and everyone grabbed one and ate. Souda was the only one who didn't join in the conversations during the meal. Everyone was nearly finished eating when Sonia and Gundam walked up the stairs. 

"Look who woke up!" Akane yelled. She jumped down from the counter she had been sitting on and wrapped her arm around Gundam, laughing. He pulled her arm off of her shoulder, but she hadn't seemed to take it offensively. Everyone else ran over and greeted Gundam, aside from Souda, who continued to clean the counter until Hinata motioned for him to come over. Everyone was happy to see him, but Sonia claimed they were both hungry.

"There's only one sub left," Souda said. "We weren't expecting anyone new today." He said the last part with a bit of annoyance, but Sonia hadn't seemed to notice. 

"That's okay!" she said. "He can have mine, and I'll get myself something else." She skipped to the refrigerator, and left Gundam in a herd of greetings and small talk from everyone else. She grabbed the sub for Gundam, made herself another sandwich, and returned to everyone else. She handed Gundam the sub and everyone joined them as they ate. Everyone had friendly conversations with each other as Gundam and Sonia continued to eat. Everyone had began to ask Gundam many questions. "What was it like being asleep?" or "How did you get up?" Gundam answered them, more than willingly. Souda rolled his eyes, and made gestures of indifference. He also began to say sarcastic things under his breath. "Amazing," he would say, or "Great story Gundam!" Gundam hadn't heard, but Sonia had. She glared at him angrily from across the table. Souda was so scared, he eventually stopped. 

Once Gundam and Sonia had finished eating, everyone seemed to disperse from there. They all agreed that Gundam probably wanted to catch up with Sonia, so they left him with her to do what they pleased. It was Akane's turn to watch the pod room, so she headed to the hospital. Fuyuhiko and Komaeda went to their cottages to sort some stuff out. Souda ran to try to fix the rollercoaster at the amusement park, which was beginning to rust after many years without repair. Hinata joined him to keep him company. 

Fuyuhiko had found a few new things left in the room from the Future Foundation. There was a box of pictures, some old clothes, and a few boxes of small things he brought to Hope's Peak with him. He decided to sort through them and decide what he still wanted, and what he didn't. He sorted through the old clothes first. He found a few suits that were fairly new and still fit, along with some clothes he had bought a few years ago that he hadn't even remembered he had. He put them in the trash bag he brought from the hotel.

He decided to look through the few boxes of little things he brought. He found a lot of things from his friends he had at Hope's Peak that hadn't ended up on the island. He wondered what happened to them. He found a few things his family had given him over the years, as well as going away presents before Hope's Peak. He didn't know his parents' fate, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Then he found an old ring he remembered his sister had given him when he was little. He remembered thinking it was a ridiculous gesture at the time, but now he decided he would treasure the gift. 

He took a few other things out of the box, throwing some of them out. Then, he picked up the tiny box full of pictures. He opened them and found that the first picture was of everyone from the simulation. They were all dressed in Hope's Peak uniforms, smiling like they were the best of friends. Well we probably were, Fuyuhiko thought to himself. He put the picture on his bed, and picked up another. It was of him and Hajime, once again in Hope's Peak uniforms. They looked happy, and they were both holding something, but Fuyuhiko couldn't make it out. Some kind of drink maybe? He put it back down and looked through some more. There were familiar faces in each photograph. Then, he stopped looking through them, and picked out one picture that caught his eye. It was a picture of him and Peko, and for the first time in a very long time, Fuyuhiko thought, Peko looked genuinely happy. They each had an arm wrapped around each other, and they both looked to be smiling and laughing. Fuyuhiko couldn't remember the context of the picture, but he knew one thing: he missed Peko. He remembered all of the times that he had fallen on the playground, and she helped him up, and the times she stood up for him when someone tried to pick on him. He also remembered her saving him when he tried to interfere with her execution. He held the picture in his hands, staring down at the image before him. He missed Peko more than anything in the world. Well, with the exception of his sister. He began thinking about how much easier it would be if Peko were there to help him get through some of the tough times on the island.

"I'm such a coward," he laughed quietly to himself. Fuyuhiko had gone on and on about how he didn't need a tool, but he found that he had depended on Peko more than he originally thought. He still never wanted her to be a "tool," but he wanted Peko, and he wanted her advice. His eyes began to tear up, but he wiped them away quickly. He didn't want to cry again. And besides, everyone else had begun to wake up. He was going to hold onto the hope of Peko waking up until he knew for certain that she would never come out of the coma. He refused to dwell on that thought. He put the pictures back in the box, slid the box under the bed, and ran out to find Souda and Hinata instead. He was about to walk out the door, when he was interrupted by his phone ringing, and Akane yelling into the phone. 

\---------------------------------------------------

Akane sat on a chair in the pod room with her head laying on the table next to her. She had been sitting in the room for over a half hour with nothing to do. She had never been very artistic, so drawing was out, and she couldn't practice any of her gymnastics or fighting skills, because she had almost broken something the last time she did so. So instead, Akane was bored out of her mind. She had been left with her thoughts, and that was never a good thing. Towards the beginning of her pod room watch, she had begun to think about some fighting techniques she needed to work on. But that didn’t last very long. Her mind then drifted off to her siblings and Nekomaru, wondering if they were going to be alright. She had no idea where her siblings were, more or less if they were alright, and she found herself constantly (but silently) worrying about Nekomaru's condition. Whether he would wake up or not was always on Akane's mind, and she always felt that she were the guilty party through all of this. A lot wouldn’t' have happened if she hadn't started that fight with Monokuma. Nekomaru wouldn't have had to step in to save her, and he wouldn't have had to become a robot. Gundam wouldn't have been able to use Nekomaru's robot self to his advantage for his murder. Just as well, Akane wouldn't have to be questioning whether Nekomaru would be coming out of his comatose state or not. Akane glanced around the room at the different pods surrounding her. 

Her eyes passed over Saionji, Teruteru, Peko, the imposter.. Her eyes finally reached Nekomaru. He looked peaceful, which was a rare sight for Akane considering he was always up, moving and cheering everyone else on. From what Akane could tell, he wasn't part robot, but it was hard to tell. Akane then glanced over at a monitor Asahina and Togami had set up. It was used to monitor everyone's heartbeats. Akane had watched it numerous times when she was bored out of her mind in the pod room. It had always been the same; everyone had steady heartbeats, and there were never any issues. Sometimes, there would be a quick "Beep!" from the monitor, making Akane jump. She would always think that someone was dying in their pod, and she would nearly yell. 

Akane looked back over at Nidai's pod, still feeling absolutely guilty about everything, when she heard a beep. She jumped, but looking at the monitor, everyone was fine. She put her head back on the table, when another beep startled her. She looked up. Am I hearing something? She thought to herself. It went off again. And again and again, increasingly getting faster. Akane jumped from her seat, and she ran to the monitor. Nidai's heart beat was slowing, and Akane had no idea what to do. 

She ran over to Nidai's pod trying to see if there were any visible clues as to what was going on. There were none. Akane ran to the phone that sat on the table in the pod room, and thought about who she could call. As far as she knew, Souda and Hinata were at the amusement park, and there was no way to contact them. Sonia and Gundam were who knows where on the island. Then she remembered that Fuyuhiko was in his room. She dialed his cottage number as quickly as possible, and yelled for him to get over there.

"Hello?" Fuyuhiko said. 

"Fuyuhiko, thank God you answered. I need your help!" Akane shouted into the phone. 

"Whoa, Akane calm down," Fuyuhiko said. "What's going on?"

"It's Nidai. I don't know what's going on, but the his heart beat is slowing down, and it almost completely stopped before, according to the monitor. I don't know what to do, and I need your help!" Akane was near tears, which was extremely rare for her. She didn't remember the last time she had cried, but she thought it was around the time she had the Despair Disease. 

"Okay, I'm coming. Do you want me to get Hinata and Souda?" he asked.

"They're at the amusement park, so don't bother! He might be dying!" Akane screamed. 

"Alright, if I see anyone on the way, I'll bring them too. I'll grab Komaeda, he's right across the way. I'm coming though. I'll be there soon. Try to do whatever you can. I'll call the Foundation." Fuyuhiko then hung up the phone, leaving Akane there with a possibly dying Nidai. I've got time, Akane thought. He's still alive, and he'll be alright. Fuyuhiko's on his way, Akane thought. 

Akane was about to see what she could do to help Nidai, when all of a sudden, there was one long beep. Akane whipped around in horror, facing the monitor. Nidai's heart had stopped beating. Tears spilled over onto Akane's cheek, and she ran to Nidai's pod, desperately trying to open it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in a month D:  
> I've been so busy and I've been writing everything except for this part. I've been trying to think of where this is going, but I got it now haha.  
> Hope you guys enjoyed it, and I'll try and update more soon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Same trigger warning as before. Lots of angst, but I added that to the tags. Lots of Akane x Nidai haha

Akane was still pulling and pushing at the doors when Fuyuhiko and Komaeda burst through the doors of the pod room. 

"Akane?" Komaeda said. "What happened? Fuyuhiko didn't exactly fill me in."

"Well that's only because I don't know myself!" Fuyuhiko yelled back. 

"I'll tell you later!" Akane shouted. "Just help me get him out of here!"

Fuyuhiko and Komaeda ran over and began trying to find out how to open it. Komaeda pried on the door, and Fuyuhiko began searching the sides of the pod. 

"Fuyuhiko, what are you doing?!" Akane shouted. 

"I called the Foundation," he said. "They told me there was a button that can open any pod if there's an emergency. I'm trying to find it."

Komaeda and Akane immediately stopped pulling at the door, and began searching for the button instead. 

"Did they give any kind of detail on what the button looked like?" Komaeda asked.

"They said it was discreet," Fuyuhiko answered. 

"That's not exactly helpful," Akane said, angrily. 

"Well when are they helpful?" Komaeda asked.

"Look who's talking," Fuyuhiko scoffed. Komaeda gave him an angry look before Akane slapped both of their shoulders.

"Look for the button!" Akane shouted. "Nidai might be dying!"

They both forgot about their bickering and began searching. After a short while, the monitor beeped even slower. Akane began to panic. What if she couldn't save him? What if he actually did die right there in front of her? She thought about all of these things, as well as how she would never forgive herself if he died on her watch. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by Komaeda. "I think I found it!" Fuyuhiko slid over and looked.

"I think that's it," Fuyuhiko said. Komaeda pressed the button and the pod doors opened. Everyone began trying to lift Nidai out of the pod. However, they couldn't get him up. 

"Guys," Komaeda said. "Look out the window."

Akane and Fuyuhiko stood up and peaked out the tiny window. There, they saw everyone walking together; Hinata, Souda, Sonia, and Gundam. 

"Go get them," Akane said. "Fuyuhiko, you stay here with me."

Fuyuhiko nodded and knelt back down next to Akane, trying to find a pulse in Nidai's arm. Komaeda hadn't returned for a few moments, and Akane began to worry. What if there was an issue? Or if they didn't come in time, and Nidai… Akane pushed the thoughts out of her head as Komaeda and the others bounded up the stairs. 

"Akane, what's going on?" Hinata shouted. 

"Nidai might be dying. We're trying to get him out of the pod," Akane answered.

Fuyuhiko intervened. "Us three couldn't lift him by himself. We need your help."

"What is the precise task at hand?" Gundam asked. 

"We have to get him out of the pod, I thought she made that pretty clear Gundam," Souda said, ignorantly. Sonia slapped his arm, making Souda yelp. 

"I meant," Gundam began bitterly. "Why are we trying to get him out of the encasement? And what location would we deliver him to?"  
"Downstairs," Fuyuhiko said. "in one of the hospital rooms. We need a hand getting him out of the pod still."

Hinata, Komaeda, Gundam, Souda, Fuyuhiko, and Akane all went over to the pod, preparing to lift Nidai out of the pod.

"Should I call the Future Foundation?" Sonia asked. Fuyuhiko told her yes, and Sonia disappeared through the door, running downstairs to the phone. Everyone else crowded around Nidai, and the all lifted him at once. They carried him cautiously down the stairs. Gundam and Komaeda seemed to be the only ones not struggling to get down the stairs. Akane forgot how strong they both were. She even silently cursed at herself for not being able to match up to them. 

When they arrived downstairs, Sonia was already waiting for them with a phone in her hand. She opened the door for them, and they placed him on the bed.

"Sonia, what does the Future Foundation think we should do now?" Hinata asked. 

Sonia put the phone to her ear and held up a finger telling them to wait. After a moment or two, Sonia took the phone from her ear. "They said to lay him on the bed-"

"Done," Komaeda interrupted. 

"Then they told me to give the phone to Hinata, who's going to connect the machine's and heart monitor to Nidai," Sonia continued, handing the phone to Hinata. 

"What, why me?" Hinata groaned.

"You're the one who wanted to make the new future, man," Souda said. Hinata gave him a shove, and Souda chuckled as Hinata put the phone to his ear and took their instructions. 

Akane sat down in one of the chairs in Nidai's new room, worried about his condition. She sat there, her foot tapping the ground rapidly. She began to bite on of her nails, a habit she had developed at a young age when she worried about something. She had been doing it a lot lately, and she barely had any nails left. 

Sonia must have noticed how worried Akane looked, because when she walked over to her, she had a concerned look on her face.

"Akane, are you alright?" Sonia asked. "You're biting your nails again." Akane forgot just how easily Sonia noticed things, and she removed her finger from her mouth. 

"I'm not," Akane said with a frown. "I'm worried about Nidai, I really am. He was my closest friend on the island, and I can barely count how many times he's saved me."

"Do you feel like you owe him for it?" Sonia asked skeptically. 

"Yeah, I guess so," Akane shrugged. "I mean, I don't think I ever thanked him for it, and I feel like I should, ya know?" Akane paused. "I should've took Fuyuhiko more seriously when he told me that in the simulation."

There was a long pause before Sonia put her arm on Akane's shoulder. "He's going to be okay, and you're going to thank him, I know it." Sonia smiled. "He's in good hands; the Future Foundation knows what it's doing. Trust me, he's going to be fine."

Akane was more than grateful for Sonia's kindness, and after all of that, Akane was overwhelmed. "Thank you," she said in a small whisper. She was sure that if she talked any louder, she would cry. Sonia smiled kindly at her. Akane tried to blink away the tears, but it didn't work. They spilled over and she began to cry. Sonia pulled her into a hug, and Akane didn’t care anymore; she began sobbing in the middle of the room. Everyone glanced over, with sympathetic looks on their faces. Well, except for Hinata, who was too busy shouting into the phone to notice. 

After about a half hour, Hinata was done setting Nidai up, and the Future Foundation was on their way. Everyone went back to their cottages to clean up a little bit. Sonia went and helped Gundam get settled in his cottage. Souda went to fix Nidai's cottage up in case he woke up anytime soon. 

Akane walked back, still shaken up about everything that had happened. Many of the others gave her sympathy on the way back, telling her that it wasn't her fault and that he was going to be okay, but she wasn't totally convinced. She had a bad feeling about everything. She wondered if Nidai was in good hands. Considering the failed simulation they had been stuck in was run by the Future Foundation, she wasn't sure if she could trust them. She went to her cottage, scared of what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a lot more angst than intended for this chapter haha w h o o p s  
> Anyways, things are going to pick up with the climax soon, so look for that. I'm really excited to write it :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE pay attention to the "Graphic depictions of violence" tag. It's kinda like the Komaeda chapter. TW for needles and violence (A LOT)
> 
> (EDIT: THIS CHAPTER ISN'T TOTALLY DONE AND I UPLOADED IT. IM REALLY SORRY. ILL TRY AND GET IT DONE BY TONIGHT. AROUND 10-11 EASTERN TIME I SHOULD BE DONE. THANK YOU AND SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.)
> 
> EDIT 2: SO I OBVIOUSLY DID NOT GET THIS UP AT 10 OR 11 EASTERN TIME A FEW WEEKS AGO AND I'M REALLY SORRY ABOUT THAT. I'VE BEEN VERY BUSY BUT I WILL TRY AND GET IT UP ASAP. I WILL LET YOU KNOW IF SOMETHING CHANGES AND THE PART I WANT TO ADD TO THIS TURNS INTO A NEW CHAPTER.
> 
> EDIT 3: HERE IT IS (FINALLY) SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG OMGG ANYWAYS HERE IT IS AND HOPEFULLY I'LL HAVE TIME TO POST THE NEXT PART REALLY SOON. HAPPY HALLOWEEN GUYS

The day after the Nidai scare, the Future Foundation showed up with numerous nurses. They set to work helping Nidai immediately. Many anxiety filled hours later, the nurses reported that he was alright, and that he should be waking up soon. While Akane felt better after hearing that, she still didn't feel much better. She decided to be the optimist, and focus on the good news. But day after day, he nothing changed. He was still laying on the hospital bed in his comatose state. However, his condition was improving day after day.  
Those days turned to weeks, and it had been over a month since everything had happened. Nidai still hadn't woken up, but the Future Foundation and the nurses had stuck around. They had all agreed that until Nidai woke up (or worse case, died), the Future Foundation should stick around. 

Hinata had been walking by the hospital when he heard a blood-curdling scream. Hinata looked around and realized that it must have come from the hospital. When he ran inside, he heard a loud crash from upstairs, and ran up the stairs to the pod room. Sonia had been taking her shift in the pod room, and when he ran in the door, he found her lifted in the air and against the wall, with hands clasped firmly around her neck. At first, Hinata didn't recognize the figure, but with a closer look, Hinata remembered her vividly. The figure stood there in a long white nightgown looking dress, with purple hair of various lengths pulled back off of her face. 

It was Mikan Tsumiki, and she was choking Sonia. 

Someone came up behind him and shoved him out of the way sending him back into the hallway. Two figures flew into the room: Byakuya Togami and Aoi Asahina. They both ran up to Mikan trying to pull her away from Sonia, who's face was growing paler by the second. Both Togami and Asahina began tugging on Mikan and they tried to pry her fingers off of Sonia. With one last great effort, Togami and Asahina were able to get Mikan to let go of Sonia. Mikan dropped Sonia to the floor, and she doubled over choking. Hinata ran in and knelt down in front of her, rubbing her back and she coughed and gagged. 

"Oh, look who it is," Mikan mused. "Two hopeful Future Foundation members, joining together to defeat despair." Mikan laughed. "Well it's not going to work. Despair always overcomes hope, and I doubt that this time will be any different-"

"Shut your worthless mouth," Togami growled. 

"Ooh? Am I reliving the past? Well, good!" Mikan laughed. "I love that despair-filled feeling of people teasing me. So keep going. Please."

"No," Asahina said. "We aren't going to listen to your 'despair-filled' requests. You're going to listen to what we say, and do what we tell you to."

"Oh really?" Mikan said. "We'll see about that." In less than half a second, Mikan grabbed Asahina by the collar of her shirt, and punched her in the stomach. She let out a loud yelp, doubling over. Mikan then kicked the back of her head, and she crumbled to the floor, lying there unconscious. Togami then tried his luck to subdue Mikan. He grabbed her by the shoulders, and sent her flying into the wall. She hit the wall with a loud thump, and came crashing back down onto her knees. She began to laugh. 

"You.. R-really think this is going to s-stop me?" she said with a crazed grin on her face. She then pounced up and kicked his knee, causing him to lose his balance. Mikan seized the opportunity. She sent her fist flying into his face, smashing into his eye, and shattering his glasses. With Togami now partially blind, she kicked his back, and he was sent to the ground, groaning in pain. She kicked him one more time, and he let out a cry, however, Hinata couldn't see exactly what happened. 

"You really thought you could defeat me? The new embodiment of despair?" she said. Togami tried to sit up, but struggled and groaned as he sat up. He fell back on his side. "Despair, cannot and will not ever be beaten!" Togami continued to groan as Mikan rambled on. Hinata continued trying to calm Sonia down, but she continued coughing and shaking. Hinata looked at Asahina, who was still laying unconscious on the floor. Her head and hand were coated with blood, and Hinata wasn't sure if she was going to be okay. Hinata looked towards the door and back at a struggling Togami, trying to decide whether he should make a break with Sonia, or intercede and help Togami. He looked towards the door one last time and found Kirigiri and Hagakure standing in the doorway. Kirigiri held a finger up to her mouth, telling Hinata to stay quiet. Hinata understood and concentrated on getting Sonia to sit up. 

After a moment or so, Hinata heard a yell. "You b*tch!" Togami yelled. Hinata looked up and watched again. 

Mikan laughed maniacally. "Keep going, insult me more!" 

"Sh-shut up!" Togami yelled in a final fit of defiance. 

Mikan laughed again. "Your despair amuses me, Togami, it truly does, and I hate to see it end like this. But now, it's the end of the line for you, Byakuya Togami." Mikan pulled out a full syringe, and lifted it into the air. Before anything could happen, Mikan was sent flying into the wall. Hagakure had ran in, and knocked her straight into the wall. Kirigiri followed him and ripped the syringe from her hand. Hagakure put Mikan in a headlock, and Kirigiri held the syringe up to her throat. Mikan began to struggle, trying to break free of Hagakure, but he was stronger than her, and she stayed in place. "Mikan," Kirigiri said, in a deadly serious tone. "calm down. It's over. The despair is gone, and I'm not letting you bring it back."

Mikan tried to laugh again, but Hagakure's grip constricted her from doing so. "So this is your last attempt at trying to-to confine me? Well, it's.. It's pathetic." She spat the last word out, and Hagakure tightened his grip again. 

"Be quiet," Kirigiri said. She put Mikan's syringe in her pocket, and pulled out a different one. She plunged it straight into her arm. She crumpled down into Hagakure's arms, unconscious. He picked her up and carried her out of the room. A second after he left, Naegi ran in and sat next to Asahina, and Fukawa ran in sitting next to Togami. They both began trying to treat them as well as they could with what they had, which wasn't much. Kirigiri ran over to Hinata and Sonia, who had finally stopped coughing, and sat up completely. 

"Is she alright?" Kirigiri asked Hinata.

"Not sure," Hinata answered. 

"What happened?" Naegi asked from Asahina's side. 

"It's a long story," Hinata said. "But when I showed up, Mikan was strangling Sonia."

"What about the others?" Kirigiri asked. "What did she do to them? If I looked, I could figure it out myself, but I'm going to tend to Sonia, so explain it to me while I'm doing this."

"Well-" Hinata began. He was interrupted by all of his friends running into the room. 

"Holy sh*t," Fuyuhiko said, walking in. "What the hell happened here?" 

"Mikan happened here," Hinata said. 

"What has happened to Sonia?" Gundam asked, obviously distressed. 

"Mikan strangled her," Kirigiri said. 

"Is it just me, or do I see a pattern forming here?" Souda said, looking at Komaeda. Akane slapped his shoulder, making him yelp. Gundam ran over next to Hinata and Sonia. Gundam put his hand on Sonia's shoulder. 

"Are you alright Sonia?" he asked. Sonia nodded, rubbing her neck.

"Can you explain what happened now?" Kirigiri asked, impatiently. 

"Yeah, anyways. In short, Mikan was strangling Sonia when I walked in. Togami and Asahina came in and tried to stop her, but Mikan stopped them instead. Mikan punched Asahina in the stomach and kicked her in the back of the head. She fell unconscious immediately after. Togami then tried to stop Mikan, but that didn't work either. She kicked his knee, and he lost his balance. They she punched his eye, and shattered his glasses. Finally, she punched him in the back, and he fell. Mikan kept going on and on about despair, and pulled out a syringe, saying it was over for Togami. Then you guys all came in and stopped her, and now here we are."

"Well, in case you were wondering Hinata, we didn't kill Mikan," Kirigiri explained. "We tranquilized her and she'll wake up in three days. Once, she does, she'll go back to regular, clumsy Mikan, not despair-induced Mikan."

Everyone nodded in agreement. "Uh," Akane began. "Is four eyes over there okay? Fukawa doesn't seem to be helping him much."

Kirigiri rolled her eyes. "He's probably refusing her help. I don't blame him though; I'm surprised she hasn't turned into Genocider yet. Anyways, I'm going to go and help. I'm guessing Gundam will take care of Sonia?"

Gundam and Sonia weren't paying any attention to her. Gundam was trying to make sure she was okay, asking her bunches of times, and Sonia kept nodding and smiling, even laughing once, trying to let him know she was alright. 

"I'd say they've got it," Komaeda said. Kirigiri nodded and walked away with a smirk on her face. 

"So, now what?" Akane said, breaking the brief silence. 

"You guys can go and do whatever you'd like," Naegi answered from Asahina's side. "We've got it handled." 

"If you need any help, we'd be glad to give it," Komaeda said. 

"If we need you, we'll let you know. As long as Sonia's fine, you guys can leave," Naegi responded. "Are you okay, Sonia?"

Sonia nodded. "I-" she paused to cough a little, and Gundam, concerned, looked at her, and rubbed her back briefly. "I'm fine. I will be." Her voice was very raspy. "It's not nearly as bad as last time." 

"Last time?!" Gundam exclaimed. 

Sonia looked at him with a look of shock. "I forgot to tell you, didn't I?" Gundam nodded, eyes wide. "I'll tell you later, promise." He nodded in agreement, but he still looked concerned as he helped her stand up, which Hinata really didn't think she needed. 

Everyone made an agreement to do what they wished until dinner, where they would meet back up at the hotel with whatever Future Foundation members could make it. Everyone went back to the first island. However, on the way there, they all decided to go and talk in Hinata's cottage. When they went in, they all found seats, Gundam and Sonia sharing one because there wasn't enough for everyone to have their own. 

"Hinata," Gundam began. "What endeavor went on inside that room? A full explanation would be quite sufficient."

Hinata shrugged. "It's kind of a long story.. But here it goes." Hinata told the entire story, as requested. Everyone sat emotionless when he was done. There was really no reaction, until Komaeda spoke up. 

"Are you okay, Sonia?" he asked. Everyone looked at him, surprised. "What? I actually care, believe it or not."

"I'm fine," Sonia said. "Thanks for asking." She smiled gratefully at him. 

"Hey Komaeda," Fuyuhiko said. "After hearing this, what do think of Mikan's actions?"

"Disgusting. They were all obviously for despair. While I don't like it, there's really nothing I can do, can I?" Komaeda answered, beginning bitterly. 

"That's not like you man. Usually you create elaborate schemes that none of us are expecting. You always think of something," Souda said. 

"I caused a lot people trouble, and while I don't like what she's doing, at all, I don't want to get in anyone's time unless I have to," he answered. 

"Thanks man," Fuyuhiko. "I think that makes life easier on everyone."

Komaeda nodded. After talking about Komaeda's previous obsession with hope and Souda's current obsession with memes, they all went to dinner. When they arrived, Kirigiri and Hagakure were already sitting at the table talking. Hagakure seemed offended by something Kirigiri had said, but immediately changed attitudes when they walked through the door. 

"Hey guys!" Hagakure called. "What've ya been up to?"

"We were just talkin' in Hinata's cottage. Nothin' really important," Akane said, sitting down. 

"The others will be here shortly," Kirigiri explained. "Naegi and Fukawa are helping the other two get here."

"Are they alright?" Sonia asked. 

"Besides temporarily impaired vision for the both of them, Togami's broken knee cap and Asahina's concussion, they're fine!" Hagakure exclaimed, way too happily.

"So they're not okay then?" Gundam said. 

"We're.. Working on it," Kirigiri said. "Mikan is in a locked hospital room, with no windows.. She's still unconscious." 

Just then, there was yelling coming from the door. "Ow!"

"I-I'm sorry!"

"Just get your worthless self out of my way!"

"Well, there's two of them," Kirigiri said, standing up. 

"I got it," Hagakure said, jumping up before Kirigiri could go far. After he walked over, the others came into view. Fukawa and Naegi looked the same, but they were each guiding someone into the restaurant. Naegi was holding Asahina's hand as she stumbled around the room. She had a large bandage wrapped around her head and her hand. Hinata didn't remember what happened to her hand, but he remembered it bleeding. He would have to ask her later. One hand was on her stomach, and he assumed it was hurting. 

Then there was the much more chaotic due of Togami and Fukawa. Togami had a cast on his knee, and was on crutches. He was wearing a different pair of glasses, but one eye was bandages just like Asahina's. Fukawa was trying to help Togami, but she was only getting in his way. Naegi tapped Fukawa's shoulder. She whipped around. 

"Let me handle it, okay?" Naegi said. Fukawa gave him a dirty looked and stormed past Asashina into the room. Asahina stumbled around for a moment. 

"Naegi? Naegi! I still need help!" she called. Hagakure ran over and grabbed her, just as Naegi had, whispering something into her ear. She nodded and they walked into the room. Naegi was a lot easier guiding Togami, but he didn't seem happy with the arrangements; not that he was any happier with Fukawa guiding him either. They finally came into the room, and they all took a seat. 

"Anything you guys want to discuss first?" Naegi asked. 

"Yeah, I'd like to know why Mikan went crazy while we didn't," Fuyuhiko said. 

"She went crazy inside the simulation and you guys didn't," Togami began. "You all came out of the simulation as you had before, and that's no exception to Mikan. You were all sane in the simulation, and she lost it in the simulation. Like I just said, you kept the personalities you had when you were in the simulation."

Everyone nodded. It makes sense, Hinata thought. It explains why he didn't come out of the simulation as Izuru, as he was supposed to. 

Everyone continued to talk about many issues. They talked of what was in store for Mikan, who everyone thought would wake up next, and there was the occasional bickering - Fuyuhiko made fun of Togami only being able to use one eye.

"You're one to talk, eye patch," Togami retorted. Fuyuhiko was speechless.

They continued talking as they ate dinner. Hagakure and Fukawa had made it, and everyone was on edge before eating it, but they realized the were all wrong, and enjoyed it very much. Once they were done, Akane began washing the dishes. From the sink, she called, "Hey, do you know anything about our families?"

The Future Foundation gave each other mutual looks that Hinata couldn't exactly pinpoint. "Are you sure you want to know?" Asahina asked.

"There's a reason I asked," Akane said, pausing from the dishes. 

"It's.. A long story," Kirigiri said. Akane put the dishes down, and Kirigiri took papers out of her pocket, placing them on the table.

"We'll tell you about your friends who are in their comatose state first, if that's alright," Naegi began. "The imposter's family state is unknown, considering we don't know anything about him either. Teruteru's brother and sister are still alive, but his mother died from an illness during the chaos. Koizumi's dad, is.. Gone. To be specific, she.. She killed him. Her mother is somewhere in Europe, but we are unsure where. Fuyuhiko, you and Peko are in the same boat. Mikan's parents are dead. Ibuki's parents, we don't know, but her brother and sister are all right. Saionji's dad is okay. Nidai's parents.."

Naegi paused, and Akane looked towards him skeptically. "What about Nidai's parents?"

In almost a whisper, "He sent his father into a coma and killed his mother."

Akane didn't answer. She stared straight ahead, emotionless. "Okay," she managed. 

Naegi looked at her. He looked like he wanted to say something, but refrained. "That's all for our comatose friends. Now, it's onto you guys. It's hard to sugarcoat, so are you sure you really want to know?"

"Tell us," Fuyuhiko said impatiently. 

Naegi nodded. "Hinata, I guess I'll start with you. There isn't much to say, but a few cousins were killed in the chaos. Their parents were injured and they’re somewhere in Japan."

Hinata wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't that. "That's it? Nothing about my parents?"

"Y-you don't know already!?" Naegi said, surprised. 

"N-no," Hinata said, taken back. "What happened to them?"

"They were.. Uh, they were found dead in your house. No one knows how or when they died, but that's what we know."

Hinata felt his face go numb. His parents were dead? That doesn't make any sense. He remembered them sending him to Kibogamine, wishing he weren't going, but they had been proud that he was. The fact that they were gone made Hinata feel sick. 

Kyouko cleared her throat, killing the silence that had settled in the room.

"Gundam," she began. He looked up at her. "Not much happened with your family. There were a few injured cousins and aunt. However, one cat, one dog, and one of the animal keeper you appointed were killed. We don't know how, but we know it happened."

Gundam's face went slightly pale. Then he said, "And what about my mother?"

"She's alright. She was with the keeper and your animals when it happened though. Her wrist was broken, and she burned a few parts of her body, but she's in Future Foundation custody. She's in good hands." 

Gundam nodded. "Thank you." 

Hagakure spoke up. "Alrighty, that's some decent news for Gundam, let's continue the streak with Akane. Alright Akane, we do not know where your dad is, or any of your stepmothers, except for maybe one of them…? We think she's your mom we dunno, but she's in custody either way. As for your siblings, we have located five of them, however, your siblings Rin and Yuuto are currently missing. We think we may have found Rin though. Your five siblings are partially injured, though not that bad. The worst is that your brother Nagisa broke his broke ankle. He was running from a Monokuma, I think, and he tripped over somethin' breaking his ankle. Kazumi broke a finger while trying to help Nagisa."

"They're all in custody," Kirigiri said. 

"Thank you," Akane said. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Hinata didn't exactly see how her parents and siblings being missing was "decent news," but he never understood Hagakure's line of thinking anyways. 

It was Asahina's turn to give news next. "Souda, unfortunately, it doesn't get much better. It might get even get worse. Your mother hasn't been found yet, but we're searching for her. We don't know her name though. Do you know-"

"Misaki Souda," Kazuichi said, interrupting Asahina. "That was her last name the last time I heard."

Kirigiri wrote it down on a piece of paper. 

"Anyways, uh. Your dad, um.." Asahina continued.

"Asahina, we said we wouldn't sugarcoat it, so say it," Togami said. 

"Okay.. Well.. You… You killed your father when you were part of Ultimate Despair," Asahina said quickly, squeaking loudly at the end.

Souda sat there, emotionless, saying nothing. Everyone looked at him, expecting him to say, or do, something. 

"Souda," Naegi began. "Are you alright?"

"No," Souda said bitterly. "But it doesn't matter; I'll get over it."

Everyone felt sympathy for him (except for maybe Togami, but Hinata wasn't sure if he was that cruel) and Hinata really wanted to try to comfort him a little bit. He almost felt that Souda's attitude was about a bit more than the news about his parents.

"Fuyuhiko," Togami began. "You're turn."

"Oh come on! Why does that four-eyed lemon b*st*rd have to tell me? Why can't someone nicer tell me?"

"Suck it up," Togami said. "Anyways, your clan is huge, so we don't know all of the details. Anyways, your aunt Akina and her family are most likely dead, just as well, your uncle Hayato and his two sons are most likely dead. Dunno how, but we're looking into it. We think some of Ultimate Despair may have attacked them, but we aren't sure, like I just said. Your parents are injured, and you already know that your sister is dead. Peko is comatose, and your friend Akio is slightly injured but in custody, along with as many clan members as we could get into our custody. The clan members in custody do include your parents. Your parents were nearly killed, by the way. That's all I know."

Fuyuhiko sat there silently. However, unlike Souda, Fuyuhiko looked like he was going to explode out of anger.

Hinata hesitantly asked, "Are you okay?"

After a moment, Fuyuhiko responded in a whisper. "I just wish she were here." 

No one knew how to respond to that. Souda put a hand on his shoulder, and gave him a small shake, trying to comfort him. 

"K-Komaeda," Fukawa started, breaking the silence. "There's nothing to tell you. You're parents have been dead since you were seven. There's no news on your other family either. I'm sure you knew that already, though."

Komaeda shrugged. "Fair enough."

"This news is the worst, unfortunately," Hagakure said. Everyone looked at Naegi, expecting him to begin. 

Naegi looked at everyone. "Oh, I have to say it?! I-I don't really want to say it alone. Can you guys help?"

"No," Togami said.  
"Yes," Kirigiri said immediately following Togami's rude remark. "When we can we'll jump in."

Togami rolled his eyes and Naegi began. "Alright Sonia, you're parents and brother are slightly injured."

"You have a brother?" Souda said.

"Yes," Sonia said. "his name is Alexander."

"Alexander Nevermind?" Gundam said. 

"Yes," Sonia said again. "I thought I told you this."

"No," Gundam said. "I knew you had a brother, but I didn't know his name was Alexander."

"That's his name, get over it," Togami interrupted. "Naegi continue."

"They're fine and still running the country," Naegi said. Kirigiri glared at him when he finished. 

"What's so bad about that?" Fuyuhiko said. "I'd have to say that's the best news out of everyone here!"

Naegi looked at Togami and Kirigiri. "Should we tell her now?"

"Tell me what?" Sonia said.  
"What Naegi just told you. Well.. That's.. Not all of it," Asahina said, hesitantly.

Sonia looked expectantly at Naegi, who in return, looked at Kirigiri. 

"Mind finishing Kirigiri," Naegi said, a nervous smile on his face. 

"You're such a baby sometimes, you know that?" she responded, the glare never leaving her face. She rolled her eyes and diverted her attention to Sonia. "This is where things get sour. Once you became a part of Ultimate Despair, you went to Novoselic."

Hinata watched as Sonia grabbed Gundam's hand. "What happened then?"

"You injured both of your parents to the point where they had to get medical attention before they could continue to rule," Togami said. "You took control and sent the entire country into chaos, spreading as much despair as you could."

"Buildings were destroyed, people were killed, and many people revolted against your parents being on the throne," Fukawa continued. 

"During the revolts, your parents didn't know what to do, but many people who had learned about Ultimate Despair began claiming that your family was working with them, and that you were all traitors. They had to explain themselves, but in doing so, many people began blaming you for everything.," Kyouko said. 

"As they rightfully should," Fukawa whispered bitterly. Asahina slapped her shoulder.

Kyouko picked the story back up. "Anyways, petitions were made to ban you from the country, and the majority of the population began threatening to file lawsuits against your family unless you were banned from the country. Your parents did not directly ban you, however, they made a law that people could not enter the country without approval from the royal family. Many people of Novoselic were content with this law, but many still were not."

"Even with this new law, all hell broke lose, and the Future Foundation, more specifically, the six of us standing before you, had to intercede and try and settle everything down. Everything is finally somewhat back in order. Most of the buildings are back together, and the protesting has stopped, for the most part," Togami said.

"However, with the new law, you will most likely never be able to go back to Novoselic. And even if you get access into the country, the riots may start again, and with the condition of the rest of the world and the instability of your country's economy, the Future Foundation may not get there in time to save your country. I really hate to say it, Sonia, but I don't think you'll ever be able to return to your country," Kyouko said, grimly. 

Sonia put her hands over her mouth before she burst into tears. Sonia grabbed Gundam and began to hug him, crying into his jacket. He put an arm around her, trying to comfort her. He looked down at Sonia sympathetically, but when he looked back up, he sent a dark glare Kirigiri and Togami's way. Hinata couldn't blame either of them; they hadn't exactly been nice about anything. Of course, they said they wouldn't sugarcoat it, but what they were doing was ridiculous. Hinata even wondered if they knew how to sugarcoat anything. Hinata knew Souda must have been totally jealous of Sonia grabbing Gundam when he had been sitting right on the other side of her, but his feelings of jealously were obviously replaced with sympathy for the crying princess. 

For a long time, no one said anything. The only sound in the room were Sonia's sobs and Gundam's low, comforting words. Eventually, Kirigiri leaned over and whispered to Naegi, who then got up and walked over to Hinata. He leaned over and whispered to him.

"We have to head out," Naegi said. "The Foundation wants us back ASAP. Sorry to leave so soon, but the nurse's will stay. When everything settles down, we'll come back for them. Okay? And, when you get the chance, can you tell Sonia I said sorry? I feel really bad about everything."

Hinata nodded, and the Foundation walked out. Many moments later, after sobs and quiet comforting words, everyone dispersed. Gundam brought Sonia to the sandy beach when Sonia refused to go to her cabin. Akane had gone to the pod room for the night, something Togami had made her do. Hinata, Fuyuhiko, and Souda all began walking back to their cottages. 

"That was some pretty depressing crap huh?" Fuyuhiko said bitterly. 

"Yeah, and the Future Foundation doesn't exactly know how to deliver bad news," Hinata said. 

"There was a lot of it too," Souda said bitterly,  
"Souda, are you okay?" Fuyuhiko said. "You said you weren't okay in there. Are you feeling any better now?"

"Not really," Souda said. "I keep thinking about it, which is only making things worse.. I hate thinking."

"Oh really? I couldn't tell," Hinata teased.

"Anyways, I'll be fine. It's bad, but I'll get over it," Souda shrugged. 

"You sure?" Fuyuhiko asked. Souda nodded and shrugged again. 

"How about you Fuyuhiko?" Hinata asked. "Are you okay?"

Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes. "No. They didn't tell me much, and what they told me was vague. They don't even know what happened! Then Togami just had to mention my sister and Peko. It's all bull-"

"Yeah," Souda said. "He's always been really freakin' blunt though."

"I bet he's never said anything nicely in his life," Fuyuhiko joked. 

"Naegi claims he can be nice," Hinata said. Souda and Fuyuhiko both looked at him like he had two heads. "But it's really rare." They nodded, and stopped staring at Hinata. 

"How 'bout you Hinata?" Souda asked. "How are you feeling about this?"  
Hinata shrugged. "I don’t know.."

"C'mon Hinata, this is a safe environment," Souda said, putting a hand on his shoulder playfully. 

"Alright fine," Hinata sighed. "I'm kinda confused about the whole thing. Even a little annoyed. I want to know what happened to them, considering it happened before all this."

"Yeah that makes sense," Fuyuhiko said. They quickly changed the topic afterwards, and made small talk until they reached the cottages. They all said their goodbyes, and went to their cottages for the night.  
\------------  
"Sonia, please."

Gundam had been trying to convince Sonia for nearly ten minutes that it was time to leave the beach. It was nearly high tide, and the beach almost completely vanishes when the water comes up that far. They had been there since the Future Foundation delivered the bad news, which had been at eight at night. It was nearly ten now, and Sonia refused to go back to her cottage, despite Gundam's pleas.

"It's ten at night. We should be slumbering. Or at least preparing to," Gundam said. 

"I would like to stay just a little bit longer," she said. 

"Sonia, you said that an hour ago."

Sonia didn't look at him. Though she was thankful for his company, she didn't want to go back to her cottage. She wanted to stay at the beach, and keep her mind focused on the waves rather than the awful news of her parents. She had tried making conversation with Gundam, and it worked for the most part. But now, he wanted her to go back to her cottage and rest, which she knew for certain she did not want to do. She had even considered staying up all night if it kept her mind off of everything. 

"I know," she said. "But I like it here."

Gundam looked at her while she watched the waves. He knew she wasn't okay, though she didn't seem to want to admit it. She looked peaceful watching the waves as they touched her bare feet. It had taken a while for him to calm her down; maybe even a full hour. Gundam didn't like seeing Sonia so upset. He didn't think she deserved this, but he kept it to himself. 

"You need sleep," he said. "And we can't sleep on the beach. It is quite cold out."Sonia didn't answer; she only looked at the waves. Gundam awaited her answer, but he began to think she wasn't going to answer and time soon. After a moment, saying nothing, Sonia stood up and dusted her dress off. 

"We can go to my cottage then," she said. Sonia took Gundam's hand and they began walking to her cottage. They said nothing, but Gundam occasionally looked over at Sonia, silently concerned. They finally reached the cottage after what felt like forever to Gundam. 

"Goodnight, Gundam," Sonia said, trying to slide into her cottage. Gundam put his arm out in front of her, blocking the door. 

"Wait," he said. Sonia looked up at him. "Are you okay? You really do not seem well. I can come in for a little while if you would prefer."

"No, it's alright," she said. Gundam wasn't convinced, yet again. 

"I'm fine!" she said. "And if I'm not," she paused. "I'll be fine by tomorrow."

While Gundam still didn't believe her, he decided to trust her, and he nodded, beginning to walk away. She was about to walk inside, when she called out. 

"You can come in," she said. "Only if you want to, though."

Gundam turned around; he had been expecting this. He walked inside and looked around Sonia's cottage. He hadn't been in the cottage since the simulation ended, but it didn't look much different. The walls were the same color, and the furniture hadn't moved much, besides a shelf that had been replaced with a dresser. The large chandelier still hung from the ceiling, as bright as ever at night. 

Sonia walked over to her dresser, and she pulled out clothes.

"I'll be back in a moment," she said. "Make yourself at home." She left with a smile, that Gundam thought may have been forced. Gundam looked around the room, and he noticed pictures lining the dresser and one of the walls. He walked over and looked at a few pictures on the dresser. There were pictures of Sonia with people he didn't know, but they were dressed in fancier garb, so he assumed they lived in Novoselic. Then there were other pictures of Sonia with their classmates: Hinata, Akane, Fuyuhiko, etc. There was even a picture of them together, but he never remembered taking it. Then he saw a picture hanging above her bed. It was a picture of her smiling surrounded by three other people: a woman, a man, and a young boy, no older than thirteen. 

"That's my family," Sonia said from the doorway of the bathroom, in a white nightgown. Gundam hadn't heard her come in, which he was extremely surprised by. Sonia walked over and pointed to each of her family members. "That's my mom, that's my dad, and that's my brother Alex, which is short for Alexander."

Gundam looked over at Sonia, who had tears forming in her eyes. He lightly took her arm, and she leaned on his shoulder. 

"I miss them," she said. Gundam let go of her arm and placed it around her shoulder instead, pulling her into a small side hug. 

"I know," he said. "Everything will align itself soon though."  
"For the better or the worst?" Sonia asked. "I just feel as though everything in my life just went downhill in a matter of five minutes. And I'm not going to be able to stay away from my family, and my country, for the rest of my life."

Gundam knew how she felt. He felt the same about his mother. He didn't know if he was going to see her again, or how she would react. 

"What should I do?" she asked, looking up at him. "I can't go back to my country to make amends, and most of the Future Foundation members don't see good in any of us. I don't know what else to do.""Maybe you should remain dormant in the situation," he said. 

"What?" she said. "How can I not do anything?" She gradually raised her voice, until she was practically yelling. "My family, my country, my life is on the line, and you're saying I shouldn't do anything?!"

"You should see how everything falls into place," he said calmly, despite being yelled at. "Then react after that."

"I can't do that!" she yelled, breaking away from Gundam. "I can't just sit back and watch as my life falls apart-"

"Who said it was going to fall apart?"

"Me," she said. "The way everything happened today, it's just the beginning, I'm sure of it. Gundam, I miss them too much, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do!" She ran to Gundam, hugging him, sobbing. He was stunned at first; he hadn't expected any of that to happen. But then again, neither had she. He then wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his scarf. 

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I shouldn't have yelled like that."

"There's no need for you to be sorry," Gundam said. "Everyone's on edge, and you have a distinct right to feel dejected."

"Thank you."

They stood hugging (and in Sonia's case, crying) for a while until she finally calmed down.

"I thought I would be fine," Sonia laughed, brushing tears from her face. "I think I'm alright now. If you want to leave you can. I'm a bit tired, so I think I'm going to try to sleep. If you want to stay, you can stay on the chair. I wish I had a couch for you instead."  
"The chair will be sufficient," Gundam said. "I won't stay the whole night, but I'll stay for now."

Sonia nodded and walked over to Gundam. She kissed his cheek lightly. "Good night," she said with a smile. Gundam could feel his face going bright red, and he pulled his scarf up over his nose, trying to conceal as much as he could. Sonia laughed. "That never gets old." She laughed and then jumped into bed, pulling the covers up to her shoulders. "Goodnight Gundam."

"Goodnight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry I haven't been updating much. It takes me a little while to get the whole chapter written. ALSO, if you guys could tell me what kind of things trigger you, that would make it easier for me when tagging it. I pretty much tagged everything I am going to write about, but I would still like to know. (If you would like to know, cursing and anything beyond violence and needles is pretty much out of the question. Basically, anything beyond a PG-13 level will not be in this story)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting back into the swing of this story. A lot more aspects of the story I kinda forgot about are back.

Hinata awoke to the sound of his alarm blaring. He groaned and rubbed his face as he sat up, realizing that he had just wiped tears that had begun to stream down his face. He shut off the alarm and got out of bed. He didn't remember much from his dream, but he remembered that it wasn't a good one. Hinata remembered that his parents had been in it, and he really wished he remembered what had happened, and why he woke up crying. He got dressed and opened his door to find Souda standing there, about to knock on his door.

"Whoa!" Souda cried out. "You okay Hinata? You look awful!"

"Nice to see you too Souda," Hinata said.

"Sorry," Souda said, embarrassed. "Are ya' headin' to the hotel?"  
"Yeah, are you?"

"Yep, let's go."

Souda and Hinata began to walk to the restaurant, neither saying much to each other. They were almost there when Souda spoke up.

"Rough night?"

"How'd you know?"

"Like I said, you looked awful earlier-"

"Thanks."

"Plus, I honestly doubt anyone had a 'good night sleep' after yesterday."

"Yeah that's true."

"I wonder if Sonia slept at all."

Hinata rolled his eyes. 

"Hey! She's my friend and I'm concerned. I'm not a stalker."

"Okay then."

"I'm not!"

Hinata laughed as they walked through the door of the hotel. They found Fuyuhiko and Akane laughing and cooking breakfast. 

"They might have actually had a good night sleep after all," Hinata laughed. 

"Oh I had a terrible night!" Akane called, a little too cheerfully. 

"Then why are you so excited?" Souda said. 

Fuyuhiko held up a mug. "Coffee. She's hyped up on coffee."

"That explains it," Hinata said. "Anyone else show up?"

"No," Fuyuhiko said. "The Future Foundation members left and Mikan's nurses left a note saying they came in for a moment for breakfast really early today. They're still at the hospital with her. Gundam and Sonia are no where to be found."

"Figures," Souda grunted. 

"So you didn't have a great night either Fuyuhiko?" Hinata asked.

"Nah," Fuyuhiko said. "Wasn't the worst, but not great. At all."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and tried to make small talk while Akane and Fuyuhiko finished making everyone's breakfast. Sonia walked into the restaurant, but Gundam wasn't with her.

"Morning everyone," she said cheerfully.

"Morning Sonia," Fuyuhiko said.

"How're you feeling?" Hinata asked. 

"About yesterday?" she asked. "I'm.. Alright. Soon enough I'll get over it.." No one was convinced. "I will be fine."

Akane handed Sonia her plate of food, and she sat down next to Hinata at the table. "Just wonderin' Sonia, where's Gundam?"

"He's in his cottage feeding his hamsters. At least that's what he said. He should be here soon though."

Everyone nodded and continued with their breakfast, as normal. Hinata still thought it was strange that Gundam hadn't shown up, but he figured he would be there soon, so he decided not to worry about it.  
\-------------------  
Gundam showed up later in the morning when everyone had finished eating. He looked like he hadn't slept at all. Hinata quickly wondered if he had gotten any after that past night. Not that he would have been surprised; no one really got much sleep that night. 

"Morning Gundam," Fuyuhiko called out. 

"Good morning," Gundam said in his usual monotone voice. He took a seat next to Sonia, without saying a word.

"You want breakfast?" Hinata asked. 

"I am fine," Gundam said.

"C'mon, Gundam, you gotta eat breakfast!" Akane called.

"I will pick something up for myself later. I am just not hungry."

"Speaking of food, does everyone wanna meet up for dinner tonight? Around six?" Hinata said. 

Everyone agreed and nodded, while Akane still tried to convince Gundam to eat breakfast, in which he still refused. 

Sonia looked at him skeptically, but said nothing. Instead, she stood up, put her plate in the sink, and walked out the door with no explanation. Gundam watched her, but remained silent. Everyone watched, silently, but surely, stunned.

"Seriously?" Souda said, breaking the silence. "You're not gonna like, go after her or anything?'

"She needs to be left alone," Gundam said. "I talked to her this morning. She's fine."

"That's not what she told us," Komaeda said, speaking up. 

"Hm?"

"She told us she was fine, or at least, that she would be."

"And she will," Gundam said. "That is what she told me this morning, and I do not doubt her."

With that, Gundam walked out of the restaurant, leaving everyone confused. Again. 

"What's their deal?" Souda said?

"Something happened," Komaeda said.

"Huh?" Fuyuhiko said. 

"It's absolutely obvious, isn't it? Have they actually defended each other like that before? Well, besides the trial, of course."

Hinata was confused. "What are you-"

"And wouldn't Sonia confide in Gundam? Or the other way around? And just as well, it seems Sonia and Gundam met up this morning. But why? And when? It's seven in the morning, isn't it?"  
"What are you saying?" Souda said, growing angry. 

"I'm saying, that something happened, but we obviously don't know what. Something that probably brought them closer together."

"Sounds like you already know," Hinata said. 

"I have an idea," Komaeda shrugged. 

"Feel like sharin' for a change?" Souda asked. 

"Very funny."

Souda rolled his eyes and put his plate in the sink. 

"Anyone gonna do anything today?" Akane said, breaking the silence.

Fuyuhiko claimed to be doing nothing, Souda was heading to Electric Avenue, and Akane claimed she was going to train. Komaeda didn't answer. 

"What about you Hinata?" Akane asked.

"Um.. I might try talking to Naegi about something that's been bothering me. It's nothing though."

"Exactly what Sonia said.." Souda grumbled to himself. Everyone rolled their eyes. Everyone dispersed shortly after, going their separate ways.   
\--------------  
Hinata made his way towards the hospital, where Naegi and the others were supposed to be. He walked silently, nervous about the what would come next. He kept going over what he would say in his head before he arrived. He finally reached the hospital and walked into the lobby. There he found stacks of papers everywhere he looked along with a laptop sitting on the desk. It had the Future Foundation logo on it. Asahina was sitting behind it, typing away furiously. 

"Hey Asahina," Hinata said, timidly. 

"Whoa!" Asahina jumped in her seat. She spilled her water all over the desk. "Ah, sorry! No one has come in since we arrived and I was really focused and I really didn't think anyone was coming-"

"Hey it's okay," Hinata said. He ran over and helped her clean up the water while protecting their papers and the laptop. "I should've let someone know I was coming."

"You don't have to help me. I got this," Asahina beamed. "I'm guessing you're here to see Naegi or something? Or Mikan? It's Mikan isn't it?"

"You were right the first time," Hinata said. "I was looking for Naegi."

"He's in the back patient room. You can go check it out. Just a quick warning though, knock. Togami get's mad if you don't. Also, if you hear yelling or screaming, don't go in. It's never good."

On that odd note, Hinata walked back to the patient room. He didn't hear anything, so he knocked on the door. Kirigiri opened it. Hinata couldn't tell if she was surprised or not; she never really showed any emotion.

"Hello Hinata," she said. 

"Hey.. Kirigiri.. Uh.. Is Naegi there? I kinda wanted to talk to him."

Without saying a word, Kirigiri turned around and looked at Naegi, who was currently holding a syringe to Mikan's arm. 

"Naegi," Kirigiri said. "Hinata's here."

"One second," he called. He put the syringe in her arm, and pushed it down, giving her a shot filled with.. Something.. Hinata had no clue. When he was done, he handed Kirigiri the syringe to clean off, and changed places at the door with her. Hinata couldn't see very far into the room, but what he saw was Togami leaning against the wall with his crutches.

"Hi Hinata!" He said with a smile. "Did you need me?"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk about something. Preferably, alone."

"Sure thing," he said. Turning back to the room, he called out, "I'll be right back!"

"Don't slam the door," Togami said as Naegi left the room. The two stood outside the door, Hinata beyond nervous, and bit conflicted about what he had seen behind the door. 

"So Hinata," Naegi said, cheerfully. "You wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Uh yeah," Hinata said, timidly. "Can we go somewhere a little more.. Private?"

Naegi looked around quickly. Then he said in a much more serious tone of voice, "Let's go upstairs."

They silently walked up the stairs, Hinata still contemplating how to phrase what he wanted to say. Once they were upstairs, Naegi led Hinata to the pod room. They walked in and Naegi closed the door behind them. 

"So," Naegi began. "What was it you wanted to ask?"

"Well," Hinata started. "This is going to sound insane but.."

"I don't judge," Naegi laughed. 

"Is there any way you could bring Chiaki back?"

The smile disappeared from Naegi's face.

"Chiaki?" Naegi asked, surprised. "You want us to try and get Chiaki back?"

"If there's any possibility that you could," Hinata said. "I think I might like that."

Naegi began to think about it.

"I know I have to place to ask, because of everything that we did but… I think we'd all benefit from her if she were here."

Naegi was silent for a moment. 

"When you say 'get Chiaki back,' what exactly do you mean?" he finally said. 

"Get her back whether it's a robot or a computer program or just a voice just something that would bring Chiaki back into our lives."

"Well," Naegi said. "I don't think it's possible."

Hinata knew that was going to be the answer, but despite that, he had still wanted to ask, just to make sure. 

"When Chiaki died in the Neo World Program, her data was deleted and erased from our computer systems."

"Then how did she come back to me in the last trial?" Hinata asked.

"You saw her in the last trial?"

"It was brief, but yes," Hinata said. "She was right there, I could've sworn-"

"Then that must be it," Naegi interrupted. 

"What must be it?"

After a pause, Naegi said, "Her data. It's been coming in and out in short waves. We haven't been able to retrieve any of it, but it always resurfaces every now and then. We try and save it, but it never stays long enough."

"Oh.. I see."

"So there is a possibility that we could recover her data. What we could do with it after, I have no idea. However, we could try and figure something out. Hinata, I'll see if there's anything I can do, but I can't guarantee anything. Let's just.. Hope for the best."

Hinata nodded. "Hope for the best. Got it."

Hinata and Naegi looked around the pod room. 

Then, after a moment. "Thank you, Naegi. For everything."

Naegi smiled. "My pleasure, Hinata."

The two looked around the room and all the open and empty pods. 

"It's.. Kinda depressing in here, isn't it?" Naegi said. 

"Yeah. Being on guard duty is pretty depressing. None of us really like it," Hinata began. "Some people try and pair up. Mainly Gundam and Sonia, but sometimes Souda or Fuyuhiko comes with me."

"Gundam and Sonia seem to have grown pretty close, huh?"

"Yeah, definitely. It happened around the fourth murder, which unfortunately, Gundam was punished for committing."

"Oh right.. I remember that.. I felt really awful watching that happen. Same thing with Peko and Fuyuhiko."

"He misses her soooo much," Hinata laughed. "Every time we ask him about it, he gets flushed and denies it."

Naegi laughed. "There are a lot of people I miss, too. They were all from that killing game. Since the Future Foundation recovered most of our memories, I've remembered spending time with all them. It makes me miss them a lot more. But in this case, they're actually dead. They can't come back, no matter how hard we try."

"Oh," Hinata said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's my fault for thinking about them that much."

"I meant that I was sorry about everything. All the trouble we've caused. From the second the Tragedy hit to now."

"It's alright. Try not to think about it too much… That's pretty hard though, isn't it?"

"Yeah, definitely. The memories didn't all come back at once. They show up every so often, and never leave. Some handle it better that others. For example, with Akane, you usually don't know anything happened. With Souda on the other hand, you can hear his screams from his cottage from a mile away."

Naegi laughed. "Hagakure's just like that. Say one little thing and he freaks. Gotta love the guy though."

After many more moments of talking together, Kirigiri came up to the pod room and knocked on the door. Naegi had to leave at that point. They said their goodbyes, and Hinata decided it was time for him to take his shift in the pod room. He sat there for another hour before Komaeda came and relieved him. 

\--------------------

Sonia had made her way back to her cottage after breakfast. She grabbed a light jacket and white scarf from her closet, and ran back to the central island. It was a much colder day, so she ran quickly. She walked to Jabberwock park, and sat down on a newly installed bench. She took everything in. It's all so beautiful, she thought. It looked just like her country.

"Hey, Sonia!"

Sonia turned and looked to see Souda coming towards her.

"Hello, Souda," She said, tucking herself farther into her jacket. 

"You okay?" Souda asked, taking a seat next to her. 

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"After last night. And you seemed to really wanna get outta the restaurant this morning. Did you want to talk to someone about it?"

"Souda, I promise you, I'm fine. I don't need to talk about anything right now. I would rather be alone.. For just a little while. I have nothing against you, I'm even just trying to have some time from Gundam, but I just need to get my thoughts in order."

Souda looked disheartened. "Oh.. Okay.. I'll… just leave you to it then." Souda stood up and walked out of park, seemingly upset.

Sonia didn't want to turn him down like that, she truly didn't. She just needed to get back into things. Besides being distraught over her family, she knew Gundam was upset over something; there was something he wasn't telling her. After a little of sitting in the park, she stood up and walked to Gundam's cottage. She knocked on the door, gently. He opened the door, and looked at her, surprised. 

"Is there something I can do for you, Dark Lady?" Gundam said, much quieter than usual. 

"May I come in?" she asked. "I'd like to talk with you."

Gundam opened the door, and Sonia stepped in. 

"What did you want to talk to me about?" He asked her. 

"I know you're hiding something," Sonia said, bluntly. 

"Wh-what?"

"And I want to know what it is."

"Why do you think I'm hiding something?"  
"You were acting strange this morning. Both when I woke up and when you arrived at the restaurant."

Gundam didn't say anything. 

"I really want to know, because I want to help, if I can."

"I… Well.."

"Gundam, it's alright. You can just tell me."

"I believe.." he began. "I am my mother's attacker."

Sonia was shocked that he could say something like that. "What? Why do think that?"

"It is something I have pondered over since I returned to this world."

"What do you mean?"

"I remember you said that everyone on this island often has dreams, which later turn out to be memories. I had a dream that I had attacked my mother and killed one of my shepard's and some animals. I refused to believe the possibility of it being true. Now I know it truly is."

"Gundam.." Sonia said. She put her hand on Gundam's arm. "I.. I'm very sorry.."

"Don't be, Sonia." He said grimly. "It's not your fault."

"It's not yours either." 

Gundam turned and looked at her, skeptically. "What do you mean?"

"We weren't ourselves," Sonia began. "We were brainwashed. Would you ever do something like that now?"

"No."

"Exactly," Sonia said. "You wouldn't. I always ask myself that question to remind myself that I'm not who I was then. And I know I never will be again."

There was a pause as Gundam looked from the floor back to Sonia. 

"It's alright to feel bad about it, we all regret the choices we made then. But we're working hard to keep our old selves from ever coming back."

There was another pause. 

"Do you feel guilty?"

"About?"

"Anything? This?"

Gundam didn't answer for a moment. Then he responded with, "Yes. I will admit that I do feel quite guilty about.. Many dark deeds but.. I will not succumb to the past."

Sonia smiled. "And neither will I." 

Gundam put his hand on Sonia's shoulder, and wrapped her into a hug. She tightly hugged him back, not wanting to let go. She wanted to comfort and console him in any way possible. Gundam winced, and Sonia was quick to react. 

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

"No.. No I'm alright."

"You winced. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing really. My chest just hurt for a moment. That's all."

"Are you sure? This has never happened before."

"It should be gone by tomorrow. Please don’t worry about me."

Sonia wasn't convinced, but she managed a kind smile just as the clock struck five. As the clock clanged signaling the time, Sonia and Gundam both looked at each other with the same thought in mind. 

"I'll see you at dinner," Sonia said. She smiled and walked out the door. 

Gundam watched as she left, but he failed to notice the scarf fall off of her as she walked out the door. He began getting ready for dinner, but as he changed his shirt, he noticed that the large scar on his chest from the execution was much more apparent than usual.   
\------

The clock struck five in the pod room as Akane sat keeping watch. The clock clanged, and she began waiting for Hagakure to come relieve her and let her go to dinner with the others. She was sitting on her empty pod which was located in between two comatose bodies: Saionji and Togami (well, the imposter one anyways.) She always thought it was sad and depressing in the pod room. Being surrounded by all her comatose friends always made her feel awful. She knew it wasn't just her though. Souda always came out of the pod room whining and Gundam would always ramble on with some kind of nonsense that she didn't understand. The only person she couldn't read was Komaeda. She never understood that guy anyways. 

Akane looked over at Nekomaru's empty pod. She always tried to avoid looking there whenever she was in the pod room. At least twice a week she would ask someone from the Future Foundation about Nekomaru, and it was the same answer every time. 

"We can't disclose that information yet. But trust me, we're working on it."

That was the last answer she got from Naegi. She was tired of waiting around and she wanted information. She was going to confront Hagakure, and she knew she would be able to get something out of him. 

Just as she was thinking about what she could say, Hagakure walked through the door. 

"Yo, Akane!" He called. "It's time for you to eat with your friends. I'll just take over from here now!"

"Hagakure, I need to ask you something and I want you to answer me," Akane said, forcefully. "How is Nekomaru?'

Hagakure froze up. "Um.."

"I want you to answer me."

"I can't t-tell you-"

"Answer me!"

"I just did!" Hagakure said, defensively. I really can't say anything!"

"Well why not?"

"Because.. Uh.."

"Why!?"

"Togami said I couldn't!" Hagakure said. "He didn’t say why, he just said I couldn't. Besides, I couldn't tell you an accurate answer anyways."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I haven't check on him since the whole Mikan incident. Kirigiri won't even let me near his door. But I predict he'll be fine, so there's nothing to worry about."

"And how often are you right again?"

"About 30% of the time."

"Nekomaru's doomed."

"Hey!"

Akane got up and slammed the door behind her, leaving Hagakure protesting behind her. She ran down the steps and looked down the hallway. She saw one of Nekomaru's nurses standing outside his door. She paused for what might have been a second too long, for the nurse outside the door shooed her away with her hand. Akane rolled her eyes and ran down the second set of stairs and out the door. 

\-------------

Komaeda was laying on the bed in his room, frustrated with how things were. He was bored all the time and no one trusted him enough to spend time with him. Even he and Hinata weren't talking very much. He was usually in his cottage, trying to find something to do. He would often be reading a book or writing something down. On occasions, he would doodle something in his notebook. This time, he loathed the ways he's been spending his time and how others spent theirs. Of course, he knew he couldn't control the actions of others, but he didn't believe they were working towards that "hopeful future" they'd been talking about. With Gundam and Sonia constantly being involved in drama, Akane being too busy worrying about Nekomaru, and the Future Foundation doing nothing to help them achieve their future. Well, besides trying to help Mikan of course.

Mikan. Ugh. Hearing her name made him wince. Since the whole despair-and-killing incident, he's despised her. He didn't want her to come back. He almost wished she would leave the island. She's been creating trouble for the Future Foundation, and she was never very helpful anyways. Well, that was his view on the topic anyways. He didn't hate her enough to kill her. He'd never genuinely met anyone he hated so much to kill. He only killed people he didn't like during his time as Ultimate Despair, but he didn't like to count that. 

While he was laying there, he heard a knock on his door. He quickly sat up, wondering who could possibly be there. No one ever invited him anywhere, so this was definitely new for him.

He stood up and walked to the door. He was beyond surprised to see Hinata standing at his door. 

"Hinata?" Komaeda said, completely surprised. 

"Hi, Komaeda," Hinata said, a bit nervously. 

"Uh.. Hi. Is there something I can do for you…?"

"We're all meeting up for dinner, remember?" Hinata said. "Were you going to join us?"  
Komaeda looked at the clock and saw that it was almost six.

"Has everyone gathered already?" he asked. 

"Just about. Only people, besides the Future Foundation, who aren't there are Souda, Akane, and you."

"Are they coming?"

"Akane went back to the hospital and Souda said he had to do something in his cottage, but they’re both coming. Are you?"

"I may as well. I don't really do much around here anyways."

"Why not?"

"I simply cannot find anything to do. I don't find anything interesting around here, and no one invites me anywhere."

"Hm I wonder why."

"Funny."

They began walking to the restaurant in silence. Then Komaeda said, "Why did you come to see if I was coming anyways? I usually come whether you come tell me or not."

"There were so few people in the restaurant that we got a little worried."

"Why?"

"Habit I guess."

They walked the rest of the way and when they got to restaurant, everyone was already engaged in conversation, but Akane.

"Hey guys!" Souda called from a table. Everyone was seated at one huge table, Sonia and Gundam seated next to each other with Fuyuhiko next to Sonia, and an empty seat in between him and Souda. Hinata walked over and sat in it. There were two extra seats next to Gundam and Souda. Komaeda walked over and sat next to Gundam, deciding to leave Souda's madness to Akane, whenever she showed up. 

Everyone made small talk, regarding the Future Foundation, what they were going to do the next day, and other little things Komaeda barely paid attention to. However, there was one thing that was nagging Komaeda. He couldn't just not ask.

"Hey, Hinata," Komaeda spoke up, in a quick conversational silence.

"Hm?" he answered.

"You said you had to talk to Naegi about something.. You wanna share that with everyone?"

Everyone looked at Hinata expectantly. "Well, um… I-"

He was cut off by a loud bang from down the stairs. Everyone jumped in their seats, except for Gundam and Fuyuhiko, who just sat up straighter.

"What was that?" Sonia said. 

"Let's go find out," Fuyuhiko said, standing up. 

They ran down the stairs into the lobby of the hotel to find Hagakure and Akane downstairs. Akane was on the ground.

"Whoa, hey! What's going on here?" Souda called. 

"Caught this one wandering around the hospital," Hagakure said. 

"What?" Hinata said.

"I was tryin' to find out somethin' about Nekomaru," Akane said from the floor. "But Hagakure brought me back here."

"Did he drag you back here?" Souda said.

"No."

"Then why the hell are you on the floor?" Fuyuhiko yelled. 

"I shoved her a little," Hagakure said. 

"Then I tripped over that cord over there," Akane said, pointing to a black cord lining the floor. "I'm okay though." Akane flashed a huge smile and stood up.

"Why can't you tell her about Nekomaru, Hagakure?" Komaeda asked.

"I don't know! I just know I can't tell her!"

"You're so dumb they won't even tell you why you can't tell her anything. Pathetic," Komaeda said. 

"Hey!" Hagakure said, defensively. 

"Komaeda!" Hinata said, surprised. 

Komaeda shrugged, and watched everything play out.

"Well, I'm gonna go back to the hospital. And I don't want to see her there for the rest of the day!" Hagakure said, walking out the door.

Akane stood up and stormed up the stairs, everyone following behind her. She grabbed a plate and grabbed food, sitting down in the only empty seat left. She angrily began to eat. 

"Akane, are you alright?" Sonia asked.

"I'm fine," Akane said, angrily stabbing her fork into her food.

"Really?" Fuyuhiko said. "Cause I think that steak would disagree."

"I'm just frustrated," Akane said. "I've asked for over a month now about Nekomaru's condition and I've got nothin'!"

Everyone sat in silence for a moment. 

"I'm startin' to think he's dead and they just won't tell me."

"Don't think like that, Akane," Sonia said. 

"But it's probably true! I mean what else could it-"

"I honestly doubt that he's dead," Gundam said, cutting Akane off. 

"Why?" Akane said, surprised. 

"Someone would have told us by now. Besides, he's much too strong to actually die to an illness. Can you disagree with me?" Gundam said. 

Akane was stunned. "Well.. No.. I guess not."

"It was a foolish thought. Diminish it. You shouldn't think that way; it won't help the situation."

"What will then?"

"Patience," Gundam said, keeping his straight face. "You will find out how he's doing soon. It's been long enough, but they may need just a bit more time. Have patience, and the situation will resolve itself soon enough."

"… Thanks, Gundam," Akane said, in a small voice. Is she.. Embarrassed? Komaeda thought.

Gundam nodded, and everyone returned to the usual small talk. Once everyone finished, they all went their separate ways. Most went back to their cottages. However, Komaeda decided to walk to Jabberwock park. 

He always thought the atmosphere was calming, despite the fact that there was usually a giant timer looming in it. That timer was gone and had been replaced with the original statue that had been there before Monokuma took it over. It was actually a beautiful statue, Komaeda thought. Too bad it was used for despair though, he thought afterwards. 

Komaeda walked over to an open patch of grass in the middle of a group of trees. He laid down and looked at the stars through some of the leaves. He thought it was a beautiful night. The stars were always shining on the island. He always came here and laid under the stars for a while. If he was lucky, no one would disturb him. He wasn't always though. He had once been interrupted by Souda searching for Sonia (again), who continuously questioned him, despite the fact that he had no idea where Sonia was. 

Komaeda had never been worried about storms or bad weather. The stars were always there, and he hadn't experienced bad weather since waking up. Komaeda usually just laid here and took in the stars, considering he had nothing to do otherwise. 

That night in particular though, Komaeda was beyond tired, and without realizing it, he had drifted off into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for not updating in so long! I've been writing it but not updating it :/ Hopefully this longer chapter will make up for some of it


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't even remember what I wrote in this chapter tbh  
> EDIT: Oh yeah some Mikan emotional trauma. If you want to avoid that, I recommend skipping over Fuyuhiko and Sonia in the hospital

That morning, everyone met up for breakfast, just like usual. However this time, the Future Foundation members (with the exception of Asahina and Hagakure) showed up. They were unusually nice and cheerful. They talked amongst themselves for the most part, but towards the end of breakfast, Naegi asked for their attention. 

"What's up, Naegi?" Souda said. 

"Well, I thought since tomorrow would mark the eighth month you guys have been here, we could do something special. I had the idea of a bonfire since we recently found materials for one," Naegi explained. "We could have it on the small beach on this island. Tomorrow night. Any thoughts?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Akane said. 

"I'm fine with it," Fuyuhiko said.   
Everyone else joined in, everyone agreeing. 

"Alright, it's settled then. Tomorrow night, everyone gather at the beach on the first island," Naegi said. 

"Hey Naegi," Souda began. "I was just wonderin' why you just found fire supplies now."

"They weren't where we thought they would be," Togami explained. 

"Where were they?" Fuyuhiko asked. 

"They were in the break room of the factory on the fifth island," Kirigiri said. "We have no idea how they got there, but at least we found them."

Everyone nodded, though they didn't know why the supplies would have been there either. After breakfast, everyone went their separate ways, even Gundam and Sonia. Most people went back to the cottages, like before, but Fuyuhiko had to go to the pod room. 

He walked through the door of the room and looked around. Asahina was supposed to be in there, but he didn't see her anywhere. There was a note on a desk in the middle of the room. Fuyuhiko walked over and looked. The note was written messily. 

Hey Fuyuhiko!  
Sorry I'm not here!  
There was an emergency and I had to help Hagakure!  
Anyways, everything's all good in here.  
You can take your shift, and I'll probably see you soon!  
Asahina

Great, Fuyuhiko thought. An emergency. He assumed it was probably something to do with Mikan, but if it was anything to do with Nekomaru.. Well, he didn't really want to know how Akane would react. As long as everything was under control, he didn't care.

Fuyuhiko took a seat on his former pod. Damn these things are weird, he thought. He still couldn’t process the thought of being connected to a bunch of computers inside these things. Then he remembered that everyone else that was still in a pod was still connected to some kind of technology. The thought made him shudder. 

Fuyuhiko looked around the room. Despite the many times he's been in the room, he'd never memorized everyone's locations in the room. He looked on either side of him. Akane had been on one side and Ibuki was on the other. Her pod was completely foggy, but there was a name card on the front of the pod. Fuyuhiko got up and looked around the room. On the other side of Akane was Gundam's pod, then Saionji, then Hinata, Koizumi, Souda, Peko..

He stopped in front of Peko's pod. He missed her so much. He always tried not to think about her. Everyone around him was waking up, one by one. He knew that eventually she'd come back. She'd never had any health complications like Nekomaru, so she thought she'd be fine in that way. Unless the Future Foundation screwed something up, she would come back fine. 

Godammit, he thought. I really miss her. 

He pulled himself away and continued to look around. Teruteru was next to Peko, then Sonia, Nekomaru, and then there was an empty pod with no nameplate on it.

Chiaki. That was the only thing Fuyuhiko could think of. Why was there a pod for Chiaki? She was part of the game so…?

Fuyuhiko shrugged it off and kept looking around. He would ask Naegi later. 

Anyways. Next to the empty pod it said "The Imposter." He'd almost forgotten that the person who claimed they were Byakuya was actually an imposter. He could clearly see the differences between the two. Next to him was Mikan then Komaeda. After that was Ibuki, and Fuyuhiko knew he'd made his way around the room. Something about this order of people looked familiar…

His thought was cut off by a loud bang from down the stairs, which was followed by a series of yelps. Fuyuhiko knew he was supposed to be watching the room, but he knew nothing new would happen. It was always the same old thing: no one woke up, and whoever was in the room at the time, wasted over an hour of their own time. 

Fuyuhiko out of the room as quickly as he could. He ran out to find Hagakure and Naegi trying to calm down Mikan, who was writhing and screaming in their arms. 

Emergency huh, Fuyuhiko thought. 

She broke free from Naegi, and tried to get away from Hagakure. Togami, who was still on crutches, could not do anything about it. Kirigiri was no where to be found, and Asahina was shoved to the floor. Fukawa was clearly just freaking out. 

Fuyuhiko ran up and grabbed Mikan's other arm. She began screaming again.

"Get her in the room!" Togami cried. 

Hagakure and Fuyuhiko dragged the writhing Mikan into her hospital room. Kirigiri was there waiting with another syringe. 

"Hold her still!" Kirigiri said. 

Fuyuhiko applied an immense amount of strength to Mikan's arm to keep her still. She cried out in pain and tried to shake him off, but it didn't work. He held on and Kirigiri applied the syringe to her arm. She slowly stopped writhing and soon stopped screaming. Tears quickly began streaming down her face. 

"I.. I'm… S-sorry," Mikan murmured before collapsing into Fuyuhiko's arms. 

"Did she just say she was sorry?" Hagakure said. 

"She did it all the time during the simulation. Well before.. Y'know."

"Well yeah, we knew that," Togami said. "But she hasn't said that she's sorry since then."

"She hasn't cried either," Kirigiri said. "This might be progress."

"Progress?" Fuyuhiko said. "Towards what?"

"She's been acting crazy, and we've been trying to stop her. This might be progress on getting her back to her normal self," Kirigiri said. 

Hagakure took Mikan from Fuyuhiko's arms and placed her gently on the hospital bed. 

"That sounds harsh," Fuyuhiko said.

"Would you r-rather have a despair filled m-maniac running around the island?" Fukawa stuttered. 

"Well, no," Fuyuhiko said. "But her old self wasn't much better. She was always saying how sorry she was for nothing. It was almost self loathing."

"She had a harsh past," Naegi said. "People often made fun of her, cut her hair, made her strip.. It was bad. There's really nothing we can do. Unless you really want us to put her through another simulation."

"No," Fuyuhiko said. 

"Exactly his point," Togami said.

"So what was that anyways? The stuff in the syringe," Fuyuhiko asked. 

"It's basically a tranquilizer, but it helps stimulate the best parts of Mikan's life so she can be filled with hope, rather than despair," Naegi explained. "It doesn't hurt her. Usually."

"Usually?" Fuyuhiko repeated.

"At the beginning, it hurt her. The despair filled version of herself didn't want her to think of those happy memories, so it pained her to think about them. She's alright now though," Kirigiri said.

Fuyuhiko nodded. 

"Thanks for your help Fuyuhiko," Naegi said. 

"No problem," Fuyuhiko said. With that, he walked back to the pod room. He was slightly worried about Mikan. The thought of her writhing and screaming, which quickly turned into crying and begging, stuck with him the rest of the day. 

\--------------

The rest of that day no one had done anything special enough to cite. The next day at breakfast, the Future Foundation came again, and everyone discussed the upcoming bonfire and the preparations that needed to me made. The boys were to gather the fire wood while the girls gathered matches and helped the Future Foundation girls with Mikan and anything else that needed taking care of. Sonia and Akane weren't exactly happy with the arrangements, but Naegi promised that if they needed any extra help, they'd be the first they'd call. Everyone split up and began the arrangements for the party. However, before she could go anywhere, Fuyuhiko grabbed Sonia by the arm and pulled her to the side to talk to her. 

"Hey, Sonia," he began. "I need to talk to you."

"Hm? Is something the matter?" Sonia said. 

"You're going to the hospital with the Future Foundation girls right? I want you to tell me what you do."

"Huh? Why?" Sonia was puzzled. Was something the matter with Fuyuhiko?

"Well.. I saw something yesterday.. Just, tell me okay?"

"Fuyuhiko," Sonia said, with great concern in her voice. "If something is wrong, you can tell me. Is it something about… Peko?"

"What?! No!" Fuyuhiko said defensively. "Look, it's about.. Mikan.." Fuyuhiko lowered his voice when he said the last part.

"What was it?" Sonia said. 

"Just, keep on eye on what the nurses and Foundation members do with Mikan okay? She was sobbing and screaming yesterday when I was there. I just want to know if she's going to be alright, y'know? I don't exactly know what they're planning, but I don't think it's the right thing to do. Just watch them, alright?"

Sonia nodded confidently. "I will do my best. Now go before-"

"Hey, Fuyuhiko," Souda called. "We're starting to get the wood. Hey.. What are you doing with Miss Sonia..?"

"I wanted to talk to him about something," Sonia lied. "This isn't a problem, is it, Souda?"

"Uh.. N-no, it's okay.. As long as.. You allowed it I guess.." Souda grumbled and walked away. 

"You seem so fine with crushing his spirits," Fuuyuhiko said. "It's almost funny."

"Oh, you don't think he actually is upset do you?" Sonia said. "Oh.. He's upset. I'll make it up to him later."

Fuyuhiko laughed quietly to himself. "See ya, Sonia," he called before walking away. 

Sonia waved and joined Akane and the other girls, then they departed for the hospital. 

\------

Sonia walked into the hospital with the other girls, looking around and examining the room. There were many papers on the bulletin board, but Sonia couldn't make anything out from where she stood. The chairs in the lobby were covered in pillows and blankets. Kirigiri saw Sonia looking at the blankets and pillows, and immediately bolted around to face her, while still keeping her balance while walking backwards. 

"We've been sleeping in the lobby since yesterday. Sorry about this mess," Kirigiri said firmly. 

"It's no problem," Akane said. 

"Yes, really. I don't believe it will be an issue," Sonia agreed with a smile. 

Kirigiri nodded and the small group walked into the main sections of the hospital. There were a few boxes lined up down the hallway. 

"Take these upstairs to the break room. Whoever has the box with the red mark needs to open it. It's filled with matches. It's probably one of the smallest boxes. Whoever has the box with the blue mark also needs to open it. It's filled with syringes and other hospital supplies that we will be sorting through," Kirigiri explained. 

Everyone nodded and grabbed a box. They all walked upstairs happily. However, Sonia could've sworn she saw Akane look in the direction of Nekomaru's room. They all walked into the break room and began scanning for any sort of marks on the boxes. 

"I found the red mark!" Akane called. 

 

"Oo! I found the blue one!" Asahina called. 

"The scissors are on the table," Kirigiri pointed out. Both girls grabbed the scissors and opened the boxes. Akane passed all the matches to Kirigiri and Asahina and Fukawa sorted through the supplies in the blue marked box. They took out bagged packages of syringes, q-tips, face masks, and other hospital supplies. Kirigiri had them separate everything into groups for each hospital room. They were then told to deliver everything to certain patient rooms. 

With that, Akane and Asahina made their way down the stairs to the first level of patient rooms while Sonia, Kirigiri, and Fukawa stayed upstairs to address the second level of patient rooms. Sonia was to address three of the rooms while the other two got the rest. 

Sonia walked into the first room with her supplies in hand. She dropped everything into their proper places in the room and drawers and began walking to get the rest. She continued to address her rooms. When she was about to start the third room, Kirigiri walked up to her. 

"Would you mind dropping these in room 3D upstairs? Just leave them on the floor," Kirigiri said. Sonia nodded and Kirigiri briskly walked to the lobby. 

"Excuse me, Touko," Sonia said, lightly tapping her shoulder. "Where is Kirigiri going?"

"Sh-she has to talk to Naegi f-for a moment," she said. "Why?"

"I was just wondering," Sonia smiled. She then walked up the stairs to the third floor. She glanced around. She saw the pod room and rooms 3A-3C, 3C having nurses standing outside. She assumed it was probably Nekomaru's room. She then saw 3D. She walked over and opened the door lightly. Inside, Mikan was laying down in her bed. 

Sonia froze in the doorway. She remembered what Fuyuhiko said, but then she remembered that Kirigiri said. She wasn't sure what she should do. She put the supplies on the ground and quietly walked towards the bed, keeping her distance, however. When she neared, she realized that Mikan wasn't just laying down. Instead she was laying down crying and shaking with her hands over her ears. Sonia thought she heard her muttering something. I'm sorry? Is she muttering I'm sorry? Sonia thought. 

Fuyuhiko had been right. The Future Foundation had done something to Mikan. Sonia knew she had to get out of the room before anyone caught her. She turned to leave, when she saw a file sitting on the desk. She quickly ran over and looked inside. There were a bunch of graphs and charts with all sorts of data Sonia couldn't make out. Every file, however, had Mikan's name printed on the front of the paper. Sonia heard footsteps coming up the stairs, so she quietly ran to the door, and simply made it look like she had done her job and nothing more. 

As she closed the door silently behind her (while also trying to make it look natural), Kirigiri walked up to the door.

"You don't need to close it," she said. "I'm going in there anyways. The boys didn't need help, and we're pretty much done here. I would say you should go get ready."

Sonia nodded and began walking away. 

"Oh and Sonia?" Kirigiri called after her. Sonia turned. "I know you were just snooping around in here. I'll let it slide this time, but if you do it again, I won't be as nice." With that, Kirigiri shut the door. 

Sonia was shocked. How could she have known she was in there? She barely walked through the door. Then she recalled the reason she got into Hope's Peak in the first place. She was the Ultimate Detective. 

Sonia walked down the two sets of stairs and ran into the lobby. She was about to walk outside when she saw Fuyuhiko standing there in front of the hospital. She couldn't tell if anyone else was there, however. 

Sonia ran outside and greeted Fuyuhiko. 

"Hello, Fuyuhiko," Sonia said. 

"Oh, hey Sonia," Fuyuhiko greeted. "You done? I'm exhausted. And we haven't even brought the fire wood to the beach yet!"

They both laughed. "Um.. About what you told me earlier.."

Fuyuhiko's face darkened a bit. "Yeah?"

"Well, I was just in her room before coming out here, and.. Well.."

"What happened?"

"I wasn't supposed to be in there for very long, but while I was in there, I noticed that Mikan was shaking, crying, and covering her ears. I thought she may have muttered 'I'm sorry' occasionally, but it was hard to tell. There were also a bunch of charts and graphs with her name on it all around the room."

"I knew it," Fuyuhiko said. "I knew they were doing something."

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's something that went into the Neo World Program."  
"Huh? What do you mean?"

"They have insane serums. They could've done something to one so it had a similar overall effect to the Neo World Program."

"You.. May be right.. As insane as that sounds-"

"Anything goes on this island," Fuyuhiko finished. 

Sonia laughed. "Took the words right out of my mouth. Well.. I'd better get going, but if I find out anything more, I'll let you know."

"See ya, Sonia," Fuyuhiko said. "And y'know, thanks."

Sonia smiled and ran towards the first island. While she made her way back, she paused for a moment, and looked back towards the hospital. She wondered why Fuyuhiko was so concerned. He'd never truly been this concerned for Mikan's well being before. Was there something he didn’t tell her?

\-------

Souda collapsed on the beach in front of a palm tree. He groaned and put his hands his head while he lay in the sand. 

"Thank God we're done," Souda said. 

Hinata walked over laughing and sat down by him. "It really wasn't that much y'know."

"Says you!" Souda yelled. "You must have super strength or something cause some of those logs were really heavy!"

"Sure, Souda. I have super strength and you have super sight; you can see ten miles away," Hinata said sarcastically. 

Souda rolled his eyes. Komaeda and Gundam walked over and stood near the two. 

"Hey guys," Hinata said. "Do you think those logs were heavy?"

"No, I wouldn't say they were heavy," Komaeda said.

"Of course not!" Gundam said. "I have carried the weight of two worlds and you say that's heavy?"

"I don't, but he does," Hinata said pointing at Souda. 

"Hey!" Souda said, annoyed. 

They all laughed as Fuyuhiko came over.

"Hey, Fuyuhiko," Hinata said. 

"Hey guys," he replied. 

"Is everyone ready for tonight?" Komaeda asked, seemingly trying to strike up conversation.

"Not really," Fuyuhiko said. "I'm not sure what to expect."

"It's a bonfire, Fuyuhiko," Souda said. "Haven't you ever been to a bonfire before?"

"That's not what I mean!" Fuyuhiko said defensively. "What I mean is, I feel like something's going to happen."

"Why do you say that?" Komaeda asked. 

"C'mon, an eight month celebration? We didn't have a six month one. Or any others, for that matter."

"That's true," Gundam said. 

"You're probably right, Fuyuhiko," Komaeda said. "I was honestly feeling the same way, but I didn't want to say anything."

"Well, if you're so insightful on this Komaeda, why don't you tell us what you think is going to happen," Hinata said. 

"Okay, first off, watch your attitude, Hinata," Komaeda said, annoyed. "Second, I think it's going to be something pretty bad. Like.. They’re gonna drop a bombshell on us."

"Don't," Gundam said. 

"Sorry. Wrong choice of words," Komaeda apologized. 

"What do you mean by that exactly?" Hinata asked. "Like, what do you think they're going to say?"

"Probably something about our families again. Or worse yet, the Future Foundation finally decided what they're going to do with us."

"Hey, wait a minute," Souda said, sitting up. "What do you mean 'finally decided?' I thought they decided they were gonna leave us on this island."

"That wasn't the officials at HQ's decision," Komaeda pointed out. "That was Naegi, Togami, and Kirigiri's decision. Am I wrong?"

"That was our choice, Komaeda," Hinata said, defensively. 

"But they let you stay on the island right? Do you really think those officials would have let you stay here?"

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, comprehending what they had heard. 

"Y'know," Fuyuhiko said. "Maybe we're just overthinking this. Maybe it is just for fun."

"You may be right, or maybe we should try seeking the more optimistic side of the situation," Gundam said. 

"What do you mean?" said Hinata. 

"Perhaps something much more.. Extraordinary will happen. Perhaps it will be positive news."

"Look at Gundam, being Mr. Optimism," Fuyuhiko laughed. Gundam closed his eyes, looking satisfied. 

"Well, let's just wait and see, cause it really could go either way," Komaeda said. 

"And here's Komaeda, being Mr. Pessimist," Souda said. Komaeda rolled his eyes. 

"Well guys," Fuyuhiko said. "I'm gonna go get ready for tonight. See ya' guys later."

Fuyuhiko walked away, and soon after, everyone else dispersed. 

\---------

The six Future Foundation members stood in Mikan's hospital room. Mikan was in the hospital bed with her eyes shut. There were tears still on her face, despite the fact that she'd fallen asleep over ten minutes ago. Naegi sat in a chair, his head in his hands. Everyone around the room stood quietly, with sunken faces. 

"It messed up," Naegi said. It sounded like he was going to cry. "This entire thing messed up."

"Naegi, calm down," Kirigiri said, her voice only slightly shaking. "I'm sure we can fix this."

"How?" Naegi yelled. "The serum messed everything up; she's more unstable than ever."

"We can't risk making this any worse, Kirigiri," Togami said. 

"Then what do you propose?" Kirigiri said, angrily. "We can't just leave her this unstable."

"Let her work her own problems out, by herself," Togami said, sternly. 

"We can't leave her in here by herself," Kirigiri said. "You know that."

"What other choice do we have?" Togami said. "Keep giving her this serum and hope she levels out on all these chemicals?"

Just then, there was a loud sob from Naegi and Asahina's general direction. Naegi had begun to cry. 

"Naegi?" Togami said, confused. He had never seen Naegi cry. Considering the surprised looks on everyone else's faces, he assumed no one else had. 

"I can't do this anymore," Naegi said quietly. 

"What do you mean?" Kirigiri said. 

"Everything has been failing and I'm constantly putting these people in danger. If I can't even help these people, how will I be helpful with anything else the Future Foundation needs us for?"

Kirigiri walked over to Naegi and took his hands from his face.

"Naegi, look at me," she said, sternly. "You are the most hopeful person I know. You can't actually think you're not being of use to these people. This is only one mess up, and they don't know about it. Don't beat yourself up over this."

"It's not just this," Naegi said. "The Neo World Program was a fail. It created traumatizing memories which were just added to their previous ones. And I have no idea how to help them.."

"Maybe you're overthinking this," Togami said. 

"Huh?" said Naegi. 

"How many times have they asked you to do something about their memories cause they can't handle them?"

"Never."

"How many times have they said 'we have a serious problem, do something about it'?"

".. Never."

"Do you see my point?" Togami said. "They’re able to deal with certain things themselves. If they need help, they'll tell you. Worry about getting these people back to physical health."

"Their friends will do the rest in terms of emotional health," Kirigiri said. "Which is the exact reason they haven't come to you for their emotional health. Like Togami just said, worry about getting them back to physical help, and if they ask you for help, then help them. Don't worry about things you really don't need to."

Naegi nodded and wiped his tears away. "There's just one thing I'm worried about, besides Mikan."

"And what might that be?" Togami asked. 

"Hinata wanted me to try and get Chiaki back. I know it's impossible, but it keeps bothering me."

"He what?" Togami said, completely surprised. "He knows we can't do that, right?"

"He does," Naegi said, progressively calmed down. "I guess he just has a lot of faith in us."

"Well, tell him to take some of that faith back, because we can't do it," Togami said. 

"It's not totally impossible," Kirigiri said. "But it can't be top priority either. Are you okay now, Naegi?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you guys," Naegi said, kindly. 

"Let's focus on tonight's news, okay?" Kirigiri said. "Since we can't bring Mikan back to the group tonight, we're going to have to come up with something else.."

"Plan B then?" Naegi asked. 

Kirigiri grinned. "Plan B."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The climax and a bit more of some happy stuff is finally coming up. Hopefully it'll be up soon


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't remember much about this but I think it's pretty happy for the most part???

Hinata sat in his cottage, waiting until it was almost six o'clock. He was anxious for the bonfire to start. After the discussion with the other guys, he was totally worried about what was going to happen. He had thought up all sorts of things that could go wrong, but he thought up just as many that could go right. He didn't know what to expect, but he just figured he would have to wait.

Hinata looked at the clock, which read 5:10. He decided it was time to go, and got up, and left his cottage. The lights on the cottages and street lights illuminated the area. The stars were super bright that night. He always thought the stars were beautiful on the island. Seeing the stars always helped him calm down and think straight. While walking to the beach, he continuously told himself over and over that everything was going to be fine, and that nothing would go wrong. But there was one thought that kept nagging at the back of his mind.

Anything goes on this island.

Anything could happen, and everything always happened at the worst or most unexpected times. He was nervous, but he tried to push all the negative thoughts away as he neared the beach. He heard faint voices laughing. 

He neared the beach even more and saw a fire burning brightly. Sitting around it were Gundam, Sonia, Akane, and Souda. He walked over as they were in the middle of laughing.

"Hey Hinata!" Akane called with a big grin on her face. 

Everyone exchanged happy greetings and Hinata took a seat next to Souda. 

"What are you guys talking about?" Hinata asked. 

"We were just teasing Souda a bit," Sonia said, still in the middle of laughing. Despite the lighting, Hinata noticed Souda was blushing out of embarrassment. 

"What about?" Hinata said, partially laughing. 

"N-nothing," Souda stuttered. 

"Akane commented on his brightly colored hair," Gundam said. 

"It's the color of freakin' bubblegum!" Akane yelled. 

"It wasn't always," Souda muttered. 

"What color was it Souda?" Hinata asked.

"Um.. Uh.." Souda said, uncomfortably. "Oh look, here comes Komaeda."

Komaeda walked over and stood by the log Hinata, Souda, and Akane were sitting on.

"Uh, hi?" He said confused. "If you were talking about something, don't stop because of me."

"Yeah, Souda," Hinata said. "Out with it!"

"It was black," Souda said. "My hair used to be black."

"No way!" Akane yelled. "You never had black hair!"

"I did so!" Souda said defensively. "You just didn't know me when I did."

Akane roared with laughter. "I can't see you with black hair, man."

Souda shrugged. "Hopefully you never have to."

Everyone laughed. Okay, Hinata thought. This is going pretty well so far. Everyone showed up, besides the Future Foundation, by the time it was seven thirty. Everyone had been laughing and having a great time with one another. They discussed everything; happy things, serious things, and some in between things. 

"I'll be right back," Sonia said. "I have to use the restroom." She got up and left. 

"So, Gundam," Akane said. "What's the deal with you and Sonia?"

"'The deal?'" Gundam repeated. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" Akane said, jokingly. "What's the deal?!"

Gundam still looked at Akane like she had two heads. 

"What she means is," Fuyuhiko began. "Is there anything going on? Anything.. Official going on?"

"Nothing official," Gundam said. 

"Well it should be!" Akane yelled, excitedly.

"You seem more invested in their relationship than he does," Souda said, a bit annoyed. 

"You're just jealous that Sonia's unofficially with Gundam!" Akane said, teasing Souda. 

"I am not!" Souda said back. Everyone laughed. After they laughed, Sonia returned with a smile. 

"So," Souda began. "Komaeda. How do feel about.. All this? Anymore thoughts from what we talked about this mornin'?"

Komaeda shook his head. "I still think something is going to happen, but I still can't tell exactly what."

"Huh?" Sonia said, confused. "What do mean something is going to happen?"

"The Future Foundation hasn't shown up yet," Komaeda said. "Don't you think they might be planning to do something?"

"Well I suppose," Sonia said. 

"I just remembered something!" Hinata said. "I'll be right back."

Hinata ran to his cottage and grabbed a small box. He put two small items in it, and ran back to the bonfire. He handed each small item to Gundam and Komaeda. 

"Is this a phone?" Komaeda asked. 

"Yeah, I forgot the Future Foundation gave us cellphones for everyone. I forgot I had my own to be honest," Hinata said, embarrassed. 

"Nice going, Hinata," Souda said, jokingly. 

"Hey, I haven't seen you using yours either," Hinata retaliated. 

Souda rolled his eyes, and everyone laughed. Gundam and Komaeda put the phones in their pockets. They all talked for a while longer, when suddenly Akane sat up and looked around. 

"What's wrong, Akane?" Fuyuhiko asked. 

"I.. Hear something…" she said. Everyone was silent and listened for something, anything, she could possibly be talking about. 

"I do not hear anything but the wind and the fire," Gundam said. 

"I obviously hear that too, but.." Akane said, looking around. 

"What does it sound like? Give us something to work with here," Fuyuhiko said. 

"It sounds like.. Voices.." Akane said. 

"Oh," Souda said. "I hear it now. It's probably just the Future Foundation."

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Sonia said. "It's just more of our friends."

"I wouldn't say they're our friends," Souda grumbled. 

Sonia rolled her eyes. 

"Well obviously it's the Future Foundation," Akane said. "But I hear one more voice.."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Souda said. "You're imagining something."

"No, I'm not!" Akane said. "I swear, there's an extra voice. I can't quite place it yet…"

"Just leave it alone for now," Fuyuhiko said. "It's probably just one of the nurses."

"But it's a guy voice," Akane said. "That much I can tell."

"Well, there are male nurses, Akane," Gundam said.

"I know that! But this isn't one of the nurses!" Akane protested. 

"Akane, they'll probably be here in a minute so just calm-" Hinata said.

"It almost sounds like," Akane interrupted. She turned around, facing away from the fire. "NEKOMARU!"

"Akane!" Hinata called, trying to catch her as she ran off to the path leading to the beach. Everyone looked at each other, and then they all jumped up at once and followed Akane. 

\--------

Akane had sprinted ahead of all of them, and despite running as fast as they could, the six of them could not catch up to Akane. They finally caught up to her when she had stopped running. Everyone was out of breath, except for Akane, who was watching the Future Foundation in the distance. 

"Why'd you stop running?" Souda said, out of breath. 

"Togami yelled at me and told me to stay back a little bit," Akane said, keeping in how annoyed she was. 

Hinata stood up straight after being hunched over from catching his breath. He looked ahead, and just barely made out a few silhouettes. 

"Go back to the beach!" Hinata heard Togami call. 

"Hell no!" Akane yelled back, taking a few steps towards the silhouettes. 

"Go back!" Toko called. 

"Don't tell me what to do!" Akane said. She started running towards the shadows where the voices were located. The entire group from the bonfire, still completely out of breath, grabbed Akane before she could go anywhere. 

"Just listen to what they say," Souda said. 

"No!" Akane said. "Nekomaru is my friend, who almost died on my watch. I've waited for over eight months now for Nekomaru to come back, and I'm not waiting any longer!"

"Well, you're going to have to," a voice said. Kirigiri walked from inside the shadows with Naegi following close behind.

"Huh?" Akane said, sounding worried. 

"Go back to the beach and wait for ten minutes," Kirigiri said. 

"Something happened, but we'll be over soon enough. I promise, Nekomaru will make it to the bonfire tonight," Naegi said. "Just wait a little longer, and everything will be okay."

Akane glared at the two, which only had an effect on Naegi. He winced, seemingly feeling bad. Akane left the area and the others followed, trying to talk to her. Nothing had an effect on her. She stormed onto the beach and sat on a log, letting her head fall into her hands. 

"Akane," Hinata began. "It's just a little longer, okay?"

"I've been hearing that my whole life," Akane said, angrily. "'It's only a little longer, Akane, okay? Then this will all be over. You'll never have to come here again.'"

"Huh?" Hinata said, confused. 

Before Akane could answer, there was a loud bang, then a few shouts. Then everything was quiet as they all looked towards the Future Foundation members walking towards them.

"Introducing," Hagakure began with a game show host voice. "The totally healthy Nekomaru Nidai!"

All the members stepped away, behind them was Nekomaru with a big smile on his face. He was no longer a robot.

"Nekomaru!" Akane called. She jumped up and ran to hug him. She grabbed him and seemingly refused to let go. He hugged her back, but not nearly as hard. 

"Hi, Akane," He said quietly. Everyone that still sat around the bonfire looked at the scene, smiles on their faces. 

Akane finally pulled away from Nekomaru, and Hinata thought she was crying. Nekomaru looked over at everyone sitting at the bonfire. 

"Come on!" Nekomaru said. "Everyone, get up here!"

Everyone looked at each other, and then they all stood up and made their way towards Nekomaru and Akane. Nekomaru wrapped them into a hug, but Gundam kept his distance. Nekomaru noticed that Gundam wasn't included. He looked up at him. 

"Come on, Gundam," Nekomaru said. "When I said everyone, I meant everyone!"

"After what happened, you can't surely want me to join in the festivities," Gundam said. 

"Who cares about all that?" Nekomaru said cheerfully. "We both know why you did it, so get over here!"

"I'm not one for hugs."

Sonia then broke away from the crowd, and grabbed his arm. She gently pulled him into the crowd, and they all resumed their group hug. 

They then broke away, and all gathered around the campfire again. Only difference this time, Akane sat next to Nekomaru (but there was really no surprise there.)

"Welcome back, Nekomaru," Fuyuhiko was finally able to say, now that they were all done being crushed by his hug. "Glad you're here and healthy."

"You.. Are healthy right?" Souda said. 

"Yep!" Nekomaru said. "Totally healthy!"

"And this time you're not part robot or anything?" Souda asked. 

"Well, that's another story," Nekomaru said. 

"What do you mean by that?" Gundam asked. Akane looked at Nekomaru skeptically. 

Nekomaru pulled away the left part of his shirt, revealing a large metal plate on his chest where his heart sat underneath.

"Wh-what is that thing?!" Akane said, surprised. 

"Relax, Akane," Nekomaru said. "It's nothing that serious or crazy as what Monokuma did."

"Underneath that plate, there are multiple wires that are connected to his heart," Kirigiri said, standing behind Hinata. "There's a lot of science behind it, but it basically keeps his heart from failure. All of his heart issues are currently resolved with that plate. After next year, if something happens to it, he's dead."

Everyone looked wide eyed at Nekomaru. "I'm sure everything will be fine," he said. No one responded. "Hey, the killing game is over, right? And I doubt any of you have the intention of killing. Am I right?"

No one answered, but they nodded. 

"Then I'll be fine!" Nekomaru said. "Let's drop the seriousness and get on with the bonfire!"

Everyone cheered and they all engaged in cheerful talk. Later on, Nekomaru spoke up.

"Also, about the killing game… I see everyone that was here when I kicked it, except for Chiaki. Why's that?"

Everyone was silent. Hinata looked at the ground, trying to stay calm. 

"She's.." Fuyuhiko started. "She's dead."

"Not comatose?"

"She's dead," Hinata said with much more force than intended. "She was a part of the simulation and when she died.. Point is, she's not coming back."

"I'm so sorry, Hinata," Nekomaru said. 

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Hinata said, looking up at Nekomaru. 

"You guys were close," Nekomaru said. "I could tell. I know my athletes."

"I'm not an athlete."

"I know my friends like I know my athletes."

Hinata knew how well Nekomaru knew his athletes, so he knew that he meant it. He felt a little better, knowing that his friends were there for him. 

"Thanks, Nekomaru," Hinata said. 

Nekomaru nodded. After a moment, the conversation engaged again. Hinata felt much better, surrounded by his friends. He knew they all loved him and respected him, and he was glad to call them his friends. He went through the worst with them, and now he's having one of the best times of his life with them. Hinata wondered if he should call them family instead. The rest of the bonfire went smoothly. Everyone caught up with Nekomaru and enjoyed each other's company. Hinata tried to remember the last time they enjoyed themselves like this. When the bonfire was over, Hinata was beyond upset, and hoped they could do it again. 

\----------

Nekomaru and Akane had walked home from the bonfire together. Akane was overjoyed that Nekomaru was finally back and okay. She had been worried for months. She had known all about his heart issues, and had wondered if he would actually make it out of the simulation alive due to the complications that had occurred. As they walked home, they made jokes and Nekomaru asked her about het training and what's been going on throughout the island. Akane told him everything that happened. They decided to talk in the hotel for a while. 

"Akane," Nekomaru said in a serious tone. "I heard you say that I almost died on your watch, and you weren't going to wait to see if I was okay anymore. What did you mean that I almost died on your watch? Future Foundation never gave me the details."

"Um," Akane said, suddenly not wanting to talk anymore. "Well.. I was the one supervising the pod room.. The monitor above your pod was beepin' like crazy. You're heart was doing somethin' weird. I got the Future Foundation and for the past month or so, you've been in the hospital with the Future Foundation. I don't know the details, cause they stopped telling me about your condition about three weeks ago, but I guess it was pretty bad if they had to put that metal plate on you."

"My heart almost failed," Nekomaru said. "At least that's what the skinny Togami kid told me."  
"That's the real Togami, believe it or not," Akane said.   
"What, was the other guy an imposter or something?" Nekomaru said. 

"Exactly! He was an imposter!" Akane cried. The two of them shared laughter. Then there was a slight pause. 

"I missed you, Nekomaru," Akane said, returning to a more serious tone. 

"I missed you guys too," Nekomaru said. "But, hey, I'm here now aren't I?" Nekomaru laughed after he said that. 

"What really happened when Gundam killed you?" Akane asked suddenly. "Like, did you actually agree to fight him or did he make that up?"

"Where's this coming from all of a sudden?"

"I just want to know!" Akane said defensively, but still flashing a small smile. "That's all."

"Well, yes, I did agree to fight him. Did he say what my reason was?"

"He didn't give an exact one," Akane said. "It was more like.. He said it was just 'cause you would never back down, but if you read the situation right, you could tell that wasn't it."

"It wasn't," Nekomaru said. "We both didn't want everyone to starve, and we were willing to give up our lives for that stake. We knew that either way both of us would die, but we were both prepared."

Akane nodded. "Sonia said something like that to me once. She said that she could automatically tell that Gundam just didn't want to kill ya' 'cause he wanted to."

"When did she say that?"

"We had some free time between the fourth trial and the fifth murder and I asked her about it. It had just been buggin' me, so I asked."

Nekomaru nodded. "So, how's your training?"

"I haven't been training much lately.. Mainly just running from place to place and punching my pillow stuffed with bags of rice."

"You're slumping behind?" Nekomaru said. "This is just unacceptable. Let's train."

"Right now?" Akane laughed. "It's eleven at night."

"So what? Let's go!"

The two ran out the door and began a late night training session. Akane had never been happier in her life. 

\-----------

Komaeda walked into his cottage after the bonfire. He was totally tired out from the busy night, and though he enjoyed it, he was glad it was over. There was so much that went on, what with Nekomaru's return and all. While most of the focus was on Nekomaru, his friends still talked to him. His friends, huh? It felt weird saying that. Komaeda never felt like he belonged with them, and he was still unsure of it at the bonfire. Heck, he was questioning it now. 

Komaeda got into a t-shirt and shorts and climbed into bed. He drifted off into a deep sleep quickly. He usually never dreamed, like the others when they got their memories back. But this time, everything was different. He dreamed in vivid colors of someone he once knew, and hoped he would never meet again.

Komaeda saw himself walking through an alley. He had a large chain hanging from his neck with writing on his face. He had a large bandage on his wrist and he was dressed in long sleeved everything: shirt, pants, and he had a glove over his left hand. His hair wasn't any different and neither were his shoes. There were two large bandages over his pants, where he remembered getting cut by a serial killer. 

He walked and entered a building. He climbed all the way to the roof where he found a shadowy figure. The figure had long black hair that reached his feet and he wore a black suit. Komaeda couldn't see his face because his back was turned to him. Despite the fact that the sun was rising, he still had a dark aura about him that could turn every sunny day into a cloudy one. 

"It's all done," Komaeda heard himself say. "Monaca's off in the hospital, and I don't know where anyone else is."

"But that's not what matters," the figure said with a voice that made Komaeda's blood run cold. He turned around and showed his face. He had red eyes and a face of a man who could actually kill you with looks. There was a large scar that ran the length of his forehead, which was hard to see due to the immense amount of hair on his forehead. "We're meeting the others at dawn. Get ready."

"I know, I know," Komaeda said defensively. "Gundam and Fuyuhiko will be waiting for us at the harbor, and everyone else will be on the boat. I already get that. But I don't get why we all agreed to do this."

"You'll know soon enough," the figure said harshly. Komaeda even winced a little. 

Komaeda looked at the figure's hands, which were lodged deeply into his pockets. He then noticed two bear heads, one of Kurokuma and one of another bear he didn't quite recognize. They were both ripped open and spilling out stuffing. 

"What happened here?" Komaeda said pointing to the bear heads. The figure didn't answer. "As silent as ever, I see. Well, no matter. As you said, I'll know soon enough."

The figure turned back around. "Listen," he said. "I have enough on my mind. I have entire plan, that you do not know about."

"And why don't I?"

"Because you get in the way," he said sternly. "You're worthless when it comes to these plans. They usually fail because of you. So stay out of my way when we get on this boat. Got it?"

Komaeda stared at the figure with an angered expression on his face. "Got it," he said finally, with an angry voice to match his face. 

The figure turned back and stared at him with an intensity that could make a grown man shudder. "Good," he said. He then walked past him and didn't look back. Komaeda watched him as he walked past. He then stared down at the two bears in front of him. He glared at them both and looked out off the roof. The city was smoking, creating trails of black through the orange sunset. While Komaeda watched the dream play out, he felt remorse, knowing he had something to do with it. However, the Komaeda in the memory flashed a grin, proud of the burning city. He then turned around and walked away. Komaeda never saw what happened next, because he woke up almost immediately. 

\---------

Komaeda woke up almost unable to breathe. He never got memories in the form of dreams like everyone else did. He was totally frightened. It was like he was watching a movie, but he felt the emotions of two different people: himself and the protagonist. He was disgusted with himself, how he had acted and the emotions he felt while looking at pure disaster. He hated how he had actually listened and obeyed that man. Komaeda knew he needed to calm his nerves before he could even think about sleep again. He was almost afraid to fall back to sleep, in case another memory came. He then realized that there was only one way to calm his nerves: talk to the source of his fright. 

Komaeda stood up, his hands shaking. He stumbled into the bathroom and rinsed his face with cold water. He tried to control his breathing and stepped outside for fresh air. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to make sense of the confusion. After taking many deep breaths outside, he looked at the nameplates of the cottages around him. Then, he found the cottage he was looking for. He walked over and was about to knock on the door when he hesitated. He wasn't going to like being woken up to talk about their horrifying past, but he wouldn't sleep unless he tried. 

He knocked on the door, hoping he wouldn't be yelled at. Please open the door, open the door. 

Komaeda jumped when he heard footsteps from behind the door. He straightened as the door opened. 

"Komaeda?" Hinata said, surprised. He was only in a t shirt and shorts. He was rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Why are you here? It's 3 in the morning."

"I have to talk to you," Komaeda said, urgently. 

"Now?" Hinata said. "Like, right now?"

Komaeda nodded. "It's about.. The past.."

Hinata's eyes widened. He knew exactly what he meant. "Get in," he said. "If this is pointless, I swear to God you will never hear the end of it."

Komaeda nodded and walked through the door. Hinata walked to his bed and Komaeda took a seat in a chair that was close to the bed. He was still shaken up, and he knew that Hinata could tell.

"So.. What happened?" Hinata asked, concerned. 

"I.. Um.."

"You've never been shy to say anything on your mind," Hinata said. "Just say it quickly."

"Okay," Komaeda said. "I saw Izuru."

Hinata's eyes widened, and he looked frightened. "Wh-why? What'd he… do?"

"I was.. Talking to him," Komaeda said. "About.. Something we did and something we were going to do. Almost like.. We were partners for something."

Hinata sat there for a moment, contemplating what it could mean. "Anything else? Could you.. Tell me more specifics?"

"I told him that someone named Monaca was in the hospital and that I didn't know what happened to the others. Then Izuru said that none of that matters. He said to get ready because we were 'meeting the others at dawn or something.'"

"Is that it?" Hinata asked. 

Komaeda shook his head. "I said that I knew that and that Gundam and Fuyuhiko would be waiting at the harbor for us and apparently everyone else was on the boat. I said that I didn't know why we needed to get on the boat in the first place and Izuru refused to tell me. Then I saw two bear heads with stuffing coming out of them. Izuru refused to tell me what that was either. He then scolded me and told me to stay out of his way. He said.. A lot of hurtful things before leaving. I also remember looking out over the city and being proud of the chaos."

Hinata sat there, thinking about everything Komaeda had said. It didn't seem like he knew anything. 

"Where did this happen?"

"On a roof in a smoking city."

Hinata sat there for another minute. He was obviously thinking as hard as he could. 

"I'm sorry," he said, finally. "I don't remember any of that."

Komaeda looked at the ground. He was hoping that Hinata had some answers. He immediately knew he wouldn't be able to sleep the rest of the night. 

"Do you remember anything from when you were Izuru?" Komaeda asked after a moment. 

"Barely," Hinata said, shaking his head. "I remember when Junko convinced me to join Ultimate Despair, killing the thirteen student council members, retrieving and uploading the AI of Junko, and a few brief moments from the Incident here and there."

"You remember retrieving the AI?" Komaeda asked. 

"Yeah.. It was from.." Hinata paused. Then with a sudden burst of realization, "two.. Bears.."

"Two bears!?" Komaeda said surprised. "I saw the two bears on the roof and their stuffing was everywhere. Could it have been those two bears?"

"What did they look like?" Hinata said, yearning for answers. 

"One was black on one side and a very dark gray on the other. It had an eye patch, a little hat, and gold teeth. The other was a completely white bear, but one side was a little darker. It had a piece of bandage falling off of it with a red eye underneath. It had white teeth and a flower was sitting next to it."

"..That's where I got them.. Those are the two bears.." Hinata said. It was like he lost the pieces to a puzzle, and finally found one. The whole picture wasn't there, but a new part was revealed. 

"Do you remember what happened after?" Komaeda said, hoping that maybe he'd get an answer. 

"No.. Not now but if I just remembered this, then maybe I'll remember soon. Though I may not want to.."

Komaeda nodded. Then he realized something. "Hey. How come everyone else remembers almost everything about the past two years, but you don't?"

"It could have something to with me denouncing myself as Izuru during the simulation. Maybe my memories were messed up somehow."

Komaeda nodded. It made sense, of course. No one else had an alternate personality to denounce. All they had to do was keep themselves from retreating into the looming despair. 

"Thank you," Komaeda said. 

"For what?"

"Talking to me about this. No one else would have, and I needed all the answers I could get."

"Glad I could help, even though it's 3 am," Hinata laughed. Komaeda joined in. Talking with Hinata made him happy and feel better about everything. 

"There's just one more question I have," Komaeda said. 

"Shoot."

"You've had those dreams that turn out to be memories right? What do they feel like to you?"

"Well.. It's hard to explain, but it's almost like I'm watching a movie, but I remember all this happening to me, and it's almost frightening."

"Thanks," Komaeda said. "That's all I need to know then. For now. Thanks again. I'll let you sleep now," Komaeda laughed. 

"No problem," Hinata said with a small smile. "I'm glad to help, but try not the make this 3 am thing constant. I kinda need my sleep."

"Sure thing. Good night."

Komaeda left Hinata's cottage satisfied. Hinata's answers would suffice until he remembered the entire thing. Komaeda walked into his cottage and sat on the bed. After moments of thinking and processing everything again, he laid down in his bed, hoping another memory wouldn't resurface. He fell into a deep sleep and was uninterrupted by memories (or anything else) the rest of the night. 

\-------------

The next morning, everyone showed up at breakfast per usual. Everyone was in a bright mood, and Hinata noticed that Komaeda was joining in despite his rough night. Nekomaru and Akane teased and joked the entire time. Nekomaru was catching up with everyone and there were no problems. While Sonia, Gundam, and Hinata did the dishes and put everything away, the Future Foundation came in to speak to everyone. 

"Hey, everyone," Naegi said, cheerfully. "Last night's bonfire went really well, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I'd say everyone had a good time," Fuyuhiko answered. 

"We were originally going to bring both Mikan and Nekomaru back, but there were a few.. Complications," Kyoko said. Hinata watched as Sonia and Fuyuhiko snuck a quick glance at each other. He wondered if they both knew anything. 

"Anyways," Togami said. "You guys really don't have much to do, am I right? We need someone to get Nekomaru situated with the pod room. Who has the ten o'clock shift?"

"That would be me," Gundam said, putting away the last of the dishes. 

"Get Nekomaru situated when he comes in," Togami said. "You know what to do. I'm leaving the responsibility to you. Screw it up and you'll never hear the end of it."

Gundam nodded. Hinata saw Akane give a deadly glare to Gundam, but when Gundam looked in her direction, she immediately looked away. He pretended he didn't see anything, but he knew that if there was a problem, Nekomaru would probably handle it. 

"Is there anything else we need to do today? Or is that all?" Sonia asked, drying a dish. 

"That should be all, but if we need you, we'll get you," Kyoko said. "Who has first shift this morning?"

"That's me," Sonia said. She looked at a clock that hung on the wall. "I should probably get going, in fact."

Sonia put the dish down and waved goodbye to everyone. She gave a hug to Gundam before she left, and ran out the door. 

"You guys are quite the couple, Gundam," Kyoko said, jokingly.

"It's actually not official yet," Akane said, going along with it. 

"Oh really?" Kyoko said. "Well, you don't need to be a detective to know that there's something going on between you two."

Everyone laughed and Gundam's face went red. 

"C'mon, Gundam," Fuyuhiko joked. "Make your move!"

Gundam didn't answer; he was too embarrassed to say anything. "Y-yes.." Gundam stuttered. "I see.."

"Ignore them, Gundam," Naegi said. "Take your time."

"It's been two months," Akane said.. "I think he's had all the time he needs!"

Everyone continued to joke around with Gundam for another moment before the Future Foundation got their breakfast and brought it back to the hospital. An hour later, Nekomaru made his way to the hospital. Kyoko gave him directions to the pod room and he made his way upstairs. He opened the door to the pod room and saw Gundam sitting on one of the glass pods. Gundam glanced over at Nekomaru as he walked in, and Gundam stood up. 

"Good morning, Nekomaru," Gundam said.

"Mornin' Gundam," Nekomaru said in his usual cheery tone. "Again."

"Welcome to the cursed pod room," Gundam said. "There are a few basics to this room. First off, you may sit, just not in that chair." Gundam pointed to a chair in the middle of the room which was surrounded by a bunch of computers. "Those computers keep everyone in here alive. If something goes wrong, they may die. If you want to sit, I recommend sitting on your own pod or the floor. They are all labeled with nameplates, so please look at them before sitting."

"Who's is that one over there?" Nekomaru pointed. "There's no nameplate."  
Gundam walked over and looked at the pod without a nameplate located next to Nekomaru's. He examined it carefully. 

"I do not know for sure, but it may be where Chiaki would have been, had she been real. Why there is even a pod for her here, I am not sure. Just avoid this pod until we know what this is for sure."

Nekomaru nodded. "Got it. What else do I need to know?"

"Don't touch any of the computers," Gundam said. "They are still connected to the functioning pods with people in them. There are still many people on the island awaiting the people in those pods. If anything happened to them, they'd be most disappointed. Finally, if there is any sort of emergency, get the Future Foundation immediately. They almost never leave here, and they're usually right downstairs."

"What should I do if someone wakes up on my watch?"

"There's a slim chance of that happening, but it is not impossible, so I shall tell you. If someone wakes up, they will probably start yelling and pounding on the glass of their pod. Press that blue button on the glass of the pod and the doors will open. Try and help them sit up when they are ready to and try and calm them down. They will be most confused, so explain the situation to them. If you still are unaware of the situation yourself, anyone will fill you in, but Akane will probably insist to do it. Anyway, after they calm down a bit, if they feel well enough, they may try and find their friends on the other islands. Otherwise, they may ask to calm down a bit, so find Naegi or one of them and they can room in a hospital room. Don't rush them, they're not going to be happy whilst waking up, so give them time. I believe that's about it."

"When do I come here? Same time everyday?"

"No," Gundam said. "There is always a new list on the hotel door with the shifts. It's also right there on the pod room door." Gundam walked over and looked at the schedule. "Souda is after you today. He's usually late." Resentment trailed in Gundam's voice. "I usually just leave if he's late. He's been over twenty minutes late before, so just leave if you want or find the need to. Also, if Sonia is ever on duty after you, she will arrive thirteen minutes early. It is a tradition in her country to arrive thirteen minutes early, so just stay on duty until you actually are required to leave. Yasuhiro Hagakure, one of the Foundation members, got in trouble for letting her start thirteen minutes early. It isn't worth it."

"Alright," Nekomaru said. "I think I got it then. Thanks Gundam."

Gundam nodded and began making his way out. 

"Hey, Gundam, wait a second," Nekomaru called quickly. 

"Hm?"

"No hard feelings right?" Nekomaru said. "About the whole you-killing-me in the simulation thing, I mean."

"No 'hard feelings' as you say," Gundam said awkwardly. 

"You still seem tense about this whole thing," Nekomaru said.

"Why do you say that?"

"I know my athletes."

"I am not an athlete."

"I can read my athletes well, but I can also read other people well too. Do you feel.. Guilty about this by chance?"

Gundam was quiet for a moment, looking down. Then he said, "I cannot deny that truth. The only other person who knows is Sonia."

"Well, don't worry about it. Really. We had both agreed that we would sacrifice ourselves. I know you'd have forgiven me by now if I had been the one to kill you. I forgave you the second I knew I was a goner. So don't worry about it, 'kay Gundam?"

Nekomaru put out his hand to shake. Gundam shook his hand with slightly more confidence then he actually had. "Alright," he said. "Thank you, Nekomaru. If you need anything else, the Future Foundation is downstairs and I am quite sure you know where to find me."

"Got it! Thanks, Gundam!" Nekomaru said cheerfully. Gundam walked out the door with a nod and left the pod room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't posted in over two months oops sorry


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nekomaru does some stuff. Lots of Nekomaru x Akane
> 
> More Mikan stuff
> 
> Sonia x Gundam. Like, a lot of it.
> 
> The family issue is reintroduced
> 
> Yay

Later that day, Nekomaru went back to his cottage and Akane came over to talk with him. She had missed him so much, and she really just wanted to catch up with him as much as possible. During the simulation, he was her best friend, and she cared about him as much as she cared about her siblings, which she didn't know all of their fates' but she was really hoping that everyone was okay. 

Akane reached Nekomaru's dorm and knocked on the door. 

"It's open!" Nekomaru called from inside. Akane opened the door and walked in. 

"Ol' man Nidai!" she yelled in greeting. "What's up? How was your first day in the pod room?"

"Pretty uneventful to say the least," Nekomaru said. 

"You want it that way," Akane said. "Trust me."

Nekomaru laughed. "Why? Is it better if nothing happens?"

"It's… chaotic if something happens," Akane said. "Kind of panicky too. Cause you gotta keep the person from dying and you gotta calm them down and it's all just a really big hassle for everyone."

Nekomaru shrugged. "It was pretty boring in there anyways."

"It doesn't get better," Akane said. "And going there everyday is always so annoying. But then we have the rest of the day to ourselves and if we're all planning on doing something, the Future Foundation will usually take over for us."

"What is the Future Foundation exactly?" Nekomaru asked. "I mean, we were thinking the entire time that they were the bad guys right? But they seem like a nice group of people, so who exactly are they?"

"They're actually the good guys, and we're the bad guys," Akane began. "Cause we were the Ultimate Despair and crap and they were just trying to stop us from wreaking havoc everywhere. They're also trying to help wake us up and keep us from falling back into despair. The one guy, Naegi, he fought to save our lives. We'd all probably be dead if he hadn't convinced the higher ups to let us live."

"We owe a lot to that guy then huh?" Nekomaru said. "And of course the others for sticking with him, but he tried to keep us alive, which is pretty impressive considering everything we've done."

"The entire foundation is also trying to get the world back in order, but the six that are always here are just here to keep us in line and help us out when we need them too."

"Sounds like we've taken them for granted," Nekomaru said. 

"Yeah, but we're trying to show our appreciation lately. In the small things, ya know? All of us agreed before you woke up that we need to do something for them eventually. Komaeda suggested a small party, but all of the supplies we get through them, so we're trying to find another thing to do, but we're all drawin' blanks."

"Maybe the closet in the log cabin would have some?" Nekomaru suggested. 

"I think Sonia might have checked in there, but we can check again," Akane said. 

"So there haven't been any other ideas since?" Nekomaru asked. 

"There was one, but it was really stupid, if you ask me."

"What was it?"

"Gundam suggested we give them the day off and take over for them. Then we could use their computers and request some stuff. Stupid right?!" Akane said, not even trying to hide her distain towards Gundam. 

"Are you and Gundam.. On good terms?" Nekomaru asked. 

"Of course," Akane scoffed. "Why do you ask?"

"Just seemed like something happened."

"His idea is just stupid is all."

"I think this is about more than his idea, because it really isn't that bad at all. In fact, I think it could work."

"You're agreeing with the guy who killed you?! Are you serious?!" Akane cried. 

"That's what this is about…" Nekomaru said, slightly happy that he cracked the case.

Akane scoffed at the ground. "He killed you Nekomaru! I can't just let that go!"

"Why not?"

"Are you hearing yourself? You're saying that Gundam's idea is a good one even though he killed you, put you in a coma, and now you have a metal heart because of it!" Akane yelled. She turned her back to Nekomaru; she couldn't stand the sight of him at that moment. That and she felt tears coming on, and she really didn't want to cry in front of Nekomaru. 

"Akane," Nekomaru said calmly. 

"You sound like nothing even happened, and that it's no big deal," Akane said. 

"Akane."

"You sound like you've already forgiven him."

"Akane."

"Well I haven't! Not after these past nine months. Not after a year, or two, or five will I have forgiven him."

"Akane."

"I'll be sixty years old and still be holding this grudge because he took you away from me! You were my best friend on this island, and he murdered you!"

"Akane, calm down," Nekomaru finally said, putting his hand on Akane's shoulder. "Give me a chance to explain."

Akane looked back at Nekomaru, trying to hide her tear filled eyes with the hair that was falling into her face. 

"Gundam and I agreed that we would both fight each other during the simulation. We both knew very well that we were both going to die and that it wasn't just one of us. Gundam simply had the upperhand at the time. Besides, it's better that he killed me then because the trial you guys did would have been one of the hardest and most confusing ever."

"But weren't you going to reveal it to everyone if we were about to vote wrong?"

"Yeah, but then I would have had to explain everything and confuse everyone even further."

"But you still almost died in your coma from a heart problem and now you have a metal heart!"

"Which is probably the best thing to ever happen to me in a hospital."

"What?"

"I told you that I was never going to live past twenty with my heart problem didn't I? Well now I don't have to worry about that. I can live past twenty safely, and this metal heart or whatever will keep my heart from any additional problems. I can't blame him for saving my life either. Besides, he would have forgiven me already had it been the other way around."

"How do you know that?"

"Gundam's not a mean guy, he's the exact opposite. Everything he does is selfless. Of course it was a big deal then, and it still seems to be a big deal now, but I'm alive and I'm happy aren't I? What difference does it make now?"

Akane didn't say anything. 

"Try and put it behind you, because I'm alright, Gundam's alright, and everyone seems to be happy right? Especially Sonia and Gundam," he laughed. "They're still not a thing?"

Akane laughed a little. "Nope, not yet." She then gave Nekomaru a hug. "Thanks Nekomaru."

"Anytime," he said hugging back. "Wanna go spar on the beach or something?" Nekomaru asked when they pulled away. 

"You know it!" Akane said back to her cheerful self. "I'll kick your ass, Ol' Man!"

"We'll see about that!"

The two raced off to the beach and sparred until dinner where Akane had finally stopped giving Gundam the death glare, not that he had ever noticed anyways.

\--------------------------

Fuyuhiko was taking another shift in the pod room. He already had his that day, but Kirigiri couldn't take her own. She had to deal with something earlier and she was too tired to take her one o'clock shift. Fuyuhiko hadn't been getting much sleep lately anyways, so he volunteered to take her shift. Fuyuhiko was almost certain that he was the only one awake in the hospital. The only other person might be Asahina, but it was doubtful. She, as well as all the other Future Foundation members, had been working nonstop, and taking an extra shift or two was the least Fuyuhiko could do. 

Memories always kept him up, so he always thought it better to be up whenever he could. He didn't want to think about that time. He wanted to put it behind him and keep moving towards the hope him and his friends were creating. Whatever that was. So much had been going on during that last trial that he found it hard to keep up. 

Fuyuhiko tried not to let his mind wander too far while he sat there bored out of his mind. He tried not to think about Peko, who was often on his mind. He wondered when she was going to wake up. He thought that he had began to see the beginning of a pattern in the order of people waking up, but he held onto the small hope that he was wrong.

He wished he could have really told Peko how much she really meant to him. Of course he had briefly told her something before she 'died,' but he wanted to say more. It had been cut off, and he wished he could have at least thanked her for everything. 

His thoughts were cut off when he heard a loud bang from down the hall. He brushed it off as nothing at first. Probably a superstition. Then he heard it again, but louder. He heard it one last time before he finally stood up and went into the hallway to see what was going on. 

He didn't see anything happening in the hallway, but he looked over to the hospital room where Mikan was staying. The door was cracked open slightly. Fuyuhiko heard more banging and then he heard someone yelp. It sounded like a girl, but with Hagakure around, he couldn't be sure. 

Fuyuhiko dashed into the room to see Asahina on the floor, her knee bleeding as she laid there struggling to stand. Mikan was standing over her with a dazed expression on her face. Both of her arms were bleeding from two small cuts on either arm.

Mikan didn't pay Fuyuhiko any attention as she grabbed a tool that Fuyuhiko couldn't name from the table next to her. All he knew about the tool was that it was sharp. Mikan began to advance on the swimmer. Asahina was about to stand up, but Mikan stepped on the back on her leg preventing her from doing so. 

"Good night, Asahina," Mikan crooned. She lifted the tool in the air preparing to stab Asahina in the nap of her neck it seemed. Fuyuhiko quickly ran and shoved Mikan off of Asahina. The two landed on the floor next to each other. Mikan, having changed her mind about her target, stabbed Fuyuhiko's arm with the object. He cried out in pain as she sliced his arm. She then took the tool from his arm and slammed his head to the ground before trying to advance on Asahina again. Fuyuhiko kicked Mikan's legs from beneath her, something he felt bad about doing, but he also had to stop her from stabbing Asahina. 

With perfect timing, the other Future Foundation member arrived, Hagakure quickly catching Mikan before she fell. She struggled and yelled, but Fuyuhiko couldn't understand a word she said. 

"Hiko!" Hagakure yelled. "Get over here!"

Fuyuhiko staggered up and walked to Hagakure. 

"Say something to her!"

"What?" Fuyuhiko said.   
"Try and snap her out of it!"

"How do I do that?!"

"I don't know, just try and get her to recognize your voice!"

"Um.." Fuyuhiko stammered. "Mikan! It's me, Fuyuhiko! You need to snap out of it okay? You're a nurse, you're supposed to heal people not injure them!"

She yelled something else Fuyuhiko didn't understand.

"Keep going," Naegi said, helping Asahina off the floor. 

"Well now what should I say?" Fuyuhiko yelled. 

"Tell her what happened to her during the simulation, maybe she'll snap out of it," Kirigiri said, seemingly trying to find something.

"Okay," Fuyuhiko said. "Mikan you were trapped in a simulation with me and about fourteen other kids. You watched four of them die and then you killed two of them because you were sick. Then you went batshit crazy and you were executed. You slipped into a coma in real life when you were executed, which is why you're alive now. So snap out of it!"

Mikan stopped her yelling and squirming long enough to look directly at Fuyuhiko with a worried expression. 

"Fuyu…" She began. "Fuyu… Hiko?"

She then collapsed unconscious into Hagakure's arms. Everyone stood for a moment, not saying anything. 

"What.. The fuck was that?" Fuyuhiko demanded. 

"She snapped," Togami said. 

"What the hell does that mean?" Fuyuhiko asked. Kirigiri came over and wrapped bandages around his cut arm. 

"She was making progress," Kirigiri said. "Then she snapped back to the despair self again. Now it seems she's snapped all the way back to her simulation personality, which is what we want."

"I'm confused," Fuyuhiko said bluntly. "What are you all doing to her that makes her like that?"

"We've been giving her medicine from syringes to try and revert her back," Naegi said. "The original dose wasn't working so we made it stronger the day after the bon fire. It started helping until now. I felt bad about giving it to her though..."

"We think though that this was supposed to happen," Kirigiri explained. "After one final full on despair mode Mikan, we think she'll revert back to her regular self, though we aren't totally sure."

"Are you okay, Fuyuhiko?" Asahina asked. "You sure took a beating for me."

"I'm fine," Fuyuhiko said. "Are you?"

"I'm fine," she said with a smile. "Thanks for saving me though."

"H-he saved you?" Fukawa said. "Ha! You must be weaker than you thought! Donuts are starting to slow you down, huh?"

"Sh-shut up!" Asahina yelled back.

"Fuyuhiko," Naegi started. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine," Fuyuhiko said, trying to brush it off as nothing. 

"Really?" Togami said. "Cause you're head is bleeding."

Fuyuhiko reached up and felt his head. When he pulled his hand back down, his fingertips were coated with blood. 

"I guess I'm not then," Fuyuhiko said sheepishly. 

Naegi and Kirigiri guided him to a chair while Togami fetched some bandages. 

"Hey," Fuyuhiko began. "What was she saying to me? It didn't sound like much, but I couldn't tell."

"It was probably gibberish," Fukawa said getting smaller bandages from a cabinet. 

"She's been spouting nonsense lately, and a lot of it has been stuff we can't understand," Naegi said. "Mainly it's inaudible mumbling, but lately she's been saying some other stuff."

"Stuff? Like what?" Fuyuhiko asked. 

"She usually says two real words in an order that renders them useless in actual conversation," Togami explained. "Once she said dank memes, whatever the hell that means. Another time frog rock. Yesterday she said Operation Eastcourt."

"Operation Eastcourt?" Fuyuhiko asked, suddenly concerned. "As weird as this sounds, it sounds familiar."

"It does?" Togami asked, bewildered. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I really remember that being something," Fuyuhiko said. "Something… Dangerous."

"Do you remember anything else?" Kirigiri asked while she finished wrapping the bandage around Fuyuhiko's head. 

"Not much but…" he started. "I remember it being successful for Ultimate Despair. I remember thousands of people died because of that one Operation. I think it was… the second deadliest operation we had come up with…"

"Do you remember the deadliest one?" Naegi asked. 

"I think it was… Um.." Fuyuhiko struggled trying to remember. 

"Don't push yourself," Kirigiri reminded him. 

"I think it was Operation Hopeless… I remember that being one of the first raids, and I remember it being successful for Junko… I don't remember any other details about either right now though…"

"That's alright. We have all the information we need right now," Togami said. "Hagakure, keep high surveillance on Mikan for the next few days. No one except for us Future Foundation members are allowed in or out of the room without our permission. Naegi, write down the Operation name. Eastcourt sounds like a code for a certain place. Fuyuhiko, if you remember anything else, let us know."

"Got it," Fuyuhiko said. 

"Are you sure you're alright going back to your cabin?" Asahina asked. 

"I'll be fine," he answered. "Besides, if I need help, everyone else is in their own cabin."

Fuyuhiko began to walk out. They said their goodnights and he left wondering why a deadly operation would be called Operation Eastcourt. And why Mikan muttered dank memes. 

\-----------------------------------------

Hinata woke up at around eight as usual the next morning. He started having odd dreams about things he didn't know or remember. Lots of bits and pieces of things were coming back, but nothing made sense. He thought Chiaki may have been in his dream, but the memory of the dream quickly faded upon waking up. 

Hinata made got ready and made his way to the hotel for breakfast like usual. When he arrived, Akane and Nekomaru were already there, along with Souda, Komaeda, Asahina, and Hagakure. They didn't usually show up, but if either of them did, it was usually the two of them together. Asahina was sorting through papers that Hagakure had put on the table. 

"Mornin' Hinata,' Souda said. 

"Morning everyone," Hinata said. Akane and Nekomaru were apparently in charge of breakfast that morning. People began to flood in. Sonia and Gundam showed up, and even the rest of the Future Foundation made an appearance. That was surprising in itself, but Fuyuhiko's appearance was even more startling. 

He had a bandage wrapped around his head along with his eyepatch. His lower right arm was wrapped in thick bandages and a small spot under his left eye had a bruise covering it. 

"Whoa!" Souda yelled when he walked in. "What the hell happened to ya?"

"A lot," Fuyuhiko said. "It's… Complicated." He said the last part while looking at the Future Foundation, almost as if asking for permission to discuss why he was in his current state. 

"He was in the pod room and Mikan went a little crazy," Asahina said. She had taken off her jacket, so two small bandages on either arm were clearly visible to everyone else. Hinata wondered if that had anything to with it. 

"She cut my arm and slammed my head into the ground," Fuyuhiko said shrugging. "I'm alright now though."

"How is she so incredibly strong?" Akane said. "She was such a weak kid in the simulation."

"The simulation isn't the same as the real world, Akane," Togami reminded her. 

"Well I know that!" Akane said. "But I don't remember her being that strong back then anyways."

"You sure you're okay Fuyuhiko?" Souda asked. "You seem a bit… Off…"

"I'm fine, ya bastard!" Fuyuhiko said. He had began to calm down in terms of cursing or foul language, but he didn't seem to mean it when he called Souda a bastard. Either way, Souda didn't take any offense. 

Akane handed Fuyuhiko his breakfast and he sat down. When everyone was almost done eating, Togami stood up. 

"Listen up," Togami said. "We have a few announcements to make. It pertains to your families. Again."

Everyone perked up at the word 'parents,' but Sonia looked up with a worried expression on her face. Gundam lightly took her hand, gave her a reassuring look, and they both looked back towards Togami.

"Nekomaru, you weren't here when we first when over this, but as for news on your parents," Togami began. "Your father is still in the coma you sent him into, and your mother is still dead."

Nekomaru was speechless for the first time in a while. "Did I kill my mother?"

"… Yes."

"Okay," Nekomaru said with a guilt ridden expression on his face. 

"Akane," Hagakure said. "We found Rin and Yuuto, but Yuuto is completely traumatized and can barely speak without breaking down into tears or screaming. Rin keeps trying to comfort him, but it's not going well. All of your siblings are still in custody. A few of your stepmothers have been found. Three to be exact. As for your dad…"

"What about my dad?" Akane said. 

"You… Injured him during the chaos," Hagakure said solemnly. "We found him staggering across Towa. We found him and asked what happened. He said 'Akane… She struck… Stop her… I'm sorry, Akane… I should have been better to you…' and he died."

Akane didn't say anything. She stared at the table in front of her.

"Are you ok-"

"Leave me alone!" she yelled. 

No one said anything, but everyone gave her sympathetic looks. 

"Alright… Uh.. Souda," Asahina broke the silence. "Like we said, you killed your dad-"

"I remember that…" Souda said. "Just keep going…"

"And your mom…" Asahina said. "We think we found her, but she's severely injured and in critical condition. We'll keep you posted."

"She probably doesn't even care about me anymore," Souda said. "She probably doesn't remember me."

"Don't think like that, Souda," Naegi said. 

"But it's true isn't it?" Souda said angrier. "Tell me right now Naegi, has she said anything about me?"

None of them said anything. 

"That's what I thought," Souda said. 

"In her defense," Togami said. "She's in immense pain and has pretty much only screamed since we met her, so it's not like she really has said much about anything."

Souda rolled his eyes. "I don't care anymore. Move on to whoever is next, cause I'm done hearing it."

After a short pause, Kirigiri spoke up. "Gundam, your mother has physically healed significantly."

"How is she doing mentally?" he asked. 

Kirigiri didn't say anything for a moment. "It's a bit of a longer story. One that I need to explain to you privately while you're taking your pod room shift."

Gundam nodded. "Alright. If you must."

"Fuyuhiko," Togami said. "Like I said last time, half of your clan is dead and half of them are in custody. Your father is permanently impaired when he walks and requires a cane and an assistant to walk. Your mother has a severe concussion and she may be going blind in her left eye."

"That's tragically ironic," was all Fuyuhiko had to say. 

"There still isn't anything to say about your family Komaeda," Fukawa cut in. 

Komaeda just shrugged. 

"Sonia, if you could talk to Togami during your pod room shift, that would be very convenient for us," Kirigiri said. 

"Um.." Sonia faltered. "Okay."

"Hinata," Naegi started. Hinata was surprised that there was news for him. There wasn't much to say last time, why would there be now.

"Your parents… Aren't actually dead."

"What?" Hinata said, utterly shocked. "They're not dead?!"

"They're severely injured.." Naegi said. "We received the wrong information last time. Things have been… Chaotic at the Future Foundation headquarters."

Hinata wasn't sure how to process this. His parents weren't dead? How the hell did they get the wrong information? It had to be pretty chaotic to screw that up. But there was still one thing that was nagging at him…

"This.. This sounds weird but…" Hinata started. "I remember setting out to kill them, as Izuru of course, and I remember hurting them. I thought… I thought that I had killed them…"

"You remember that?" Naegi asked, surprised. "Your parents names are Sadashi Hinata and Akira Hinata right? Sadashi is your mom and Akira is your dad?"

"Yeah.. Those are their names…"

"They're alive and in custody. They're hurt, but they're alive."

Hinata was speechless. Sure, he was so happy that his parents were alive and all, but he was worried about what they thought of him, or what would happen if he ever met them again. Was he ever going to meet them again?

"Hinata?"

"I…" Hinata faltered. "Could I talk to you about something later Naegi?"

"Of course," Naegi said with an understanding smile. "Whenever you need to talk to me, I'll be in room 3D, so knock before you come in."

Hinata nodded. He was glad to have someone like Naegi who understood the situation and reacted normally to it. Well, most of the time. Hinata just felt that he was the only Future Foundation member he could count on. Kirigiri was very serious most of the time, Togami was an asshole, Asahina was very energetic 24/7, Hagakure was too dumb for Hinata to rely on him, and Fukawa… Well, she wasn't exactly 'sane.'

"There is one more thing we would like to talk about with all of you before we go back to the hospital," Kirigiri spoke up. "How would you all feel if you got together with your families again?"

Everybody sat up a little straighter at this. 

"What do you… We can't get off the island, so how is that even possible," Souda said.

"They would come here," Togami said. "Obviously."

"We would set out a date and fly the families over," Kirigiri explained. "You would spend a day or two with them and if all goes well, they can stay for as long as they want, and if it fails, they will leave as soon as possible."

"What about those of us without living family members?" Komaeda asked. 

"You could spend the day with someone who does or do whatever you want by yourself," Hagakure suggested. 

"What about the comatose people?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"That was my next point," Kirigiri said. "If you all agree to do this, we will bring as many members of your families as possible. If we did it soon, there is no guarantee that everyone will be awake and ready for their family. Would you like to meet with your families before or after everyone wakes up?"

"After," Fuyuhiko immediately said. "It's not fair to our other friends."

"I think before would work better," Akane said. "We see our families, and if things work out, they come a second time. If they don't they don't come again while everyone else's come instead."

Everyone shared their own opinions before it was decided that they would wait until most of their comatose friends woke up. 

"Of course, there is no guarantee that every family will want to come," Asahina said nervously. 

"What do you mean?" Fuyuhiko asked. 

"There are certain issues pertaining certain families, which is what we actually have to talk to Sonia and Gundam about," Kirigiri explained. 

The couple tensed up a bit, but said nothing. Sonia obviously knew something like this was coming, but Hinata wondered if Gundam had been expecting that. 

"We will continue to discuss these matters with your families," Kirigiri said. Her phone buzzed and she looked down. She nodded to Naegi and they all began gathering their things and filing out. "There's probably still a long way to go before everyone wakes up, so try not to dwell on this matter too much. Take care of yourselves and we'll talk to you later."

The six walked out, but not before Naegi cast them a sympathetic look and a wave. No one said anything. They all just sat there thinking to themselves. 

The silence was cut off when Akane stood up to leave. 

"I have to take my pod room shift," she said. She left the room without looking at anyone, not even Nekomaru, as she left. 

Following Akane, Sonia stood up, but instead of leaving, she did everyone's dishes. Gundam stood up to help, but she wouldn't let him. She made him go feed his hamsters instead, which he reluctantly left the restaurant to do. 

Everyone finally began going about their business, but no one said anything. Eventually, it was just Sonia and Hinata left in the kitchen. Sonia was putting the dishes away and Hinata decided to clean the restaurant for a change. 

Sonia put the last dish away and began to make her way out. 

"Hey Sonia?" Hinata called before she left. She wordlessly turned and looked at him. "It's going to be alright. I promise."

Sonia gave Hinata a small smile before leaving.

\------------------------------

Gundam arrived at the pod room later that day not exactly sure what to expect. Kirigiri had asked that he meet with her after he asked about his mother's mental state. This worried him. His mother hadn't always been the most stable person, and Gundam figured he was probably the only one to keep her from losing it. He knew already that he had attacked and injured his mom, which he undoubtedly felt guilty about. He couldn't help being upset; he had attacked his own mother. He didn't think that a being such as him could even do something that horrible, especially to someone he cared about deeply. 

Gundam waited in the pod room for Kirigiri, and about five minutes after he arrived, she walked in the door. 

"Hello again, Gundam," she said. She was holding a small stack of papers. 

"Good morning, Kirigiri," Gundam said. 

"To discuss what we were talking about this morning," Kirigiri began. "Your mother's mental condition."

"How is she?"

"She…" Kirigiri faltered. "She's… not doing well."

Gundam had expected this much. "How so?"

"She's not eating or drinking much, and she doesn't get much sleep. Usually only an hour or two a day, and on really bad days, only about a half hour."

"That cannot be possible," Gundam said. "One cannot live without sleep."

"Every few days she sleeps for most of the day, but she doesn't eat or drink at all on those days, which is only one part of her current instability. The second part is that she is in complete denial over everything we say."

"What do you mean?"

"She doesn't believe that the world is in shambles. She doesn't believe you were ever put into the simulation. And she really doesn't believe that you attacked her."

The final sentence left Gundam with a pang of guilt. He knew he had attacked her, there was no doubt, but he wasn't aware that Kirigiri knew too. And he also didn't know how to hand this information about his mother. 

"She won't believe anything you say?" Gundam asked. 

Kirigiri shook her head. "We've tried everything. We've even tried saying that you want her to eat, but she doesn't listen and calls us liars. The only person she listens to is Hinata's mother. We don't really know why, but when we can, we ask her to try and get your mother's health back where it needs to be. We've made a little progress, but it's not going well."

Gundam was silent for a moment, unsure how to handle this information. 

"She had never been a completely stable person, but…" Gundam began. "I thought this wouldn't affect her that much. She wasn't even affected when my father left us."

"Gundam," Kirigiri started. "I know that this is the last thing you want to hear, but… Your mother is going mad. She's almost gone completely insane, and there's almost nothing we can do about it."

"Almost?"

"We have one idea, but this requires your approval and consent," Kirigiri said. "We think that if she heard these things from you, about how she should eat, drink, and sleep, she may get back into things a bit. We also think that if you try, you may be able to snap her back to reality and convince her that everything we told her has happened."

"This sounds more like you want me to drive her past the brink of insanity," Gundam said. "It sounds like I'm convincing her that everything did happen, and hearing that from me may completely break her."

"We don't think so," Kirigiri said. 

"And why not?"

"She has said on multiple occasions that she won't believe it until she hears it from you herself. We think that maybe she will believe it if it comes from you."

"I'm not even allowed to leave this cursed island, so how am I supposed to complete this task anyways?"

"We have special permission to allow you to leave the island for 48 hours at the very most to try and complete this task. Please know that this is not only an attempt to keep your mother from insanity but also something that will tell other Future Foundation members if you can all be trusted or not, and whether you accept or decline this task will also reflect on this too."

Gundam was at a crossroads and he didn't know what to do. He thought that Kirigiri was wrong and that telling her mother all of this would drive her to insanity anyways, but now the Future Foundation would watch him as a sort of test. He wanted to say no, to prove what Kirigiri hypothesized was wrong, but two things stopped him. The Future Foundation higher ups would be watching him to see if they could trust him. He also knew he had to try and save his mother from insanity, even if it meant completing this task. 

"Fine," Gundam said. "I'll do it."

"Thank you, Gundam," Kirigiri said. "If you want to bring Sonia with you, no one's going to stop you. It might be best if she comes along even, but that's for the two of you to decide."

"Do you know what is going on with Sonia's family currently?" Gundam asked, curious. 

"Yes, I do," Kirigiri said. "But I can't share that information with you, it wouldn't be right. I'll let Sonia tell you, if she so pleases, which I'm sure she will. There is one thing I can say though."

"What would that be?"

"Advice," Kirigiri said. "Stay with Sonia, even if you just stay friends. She doesn't need to lose anyone else in her life. Be there for each other and things will seemingly be easier."

"… Thank you," Gundam said. 

Kirigiri nodded. "We leave on Thursday. Tell either Naegi, Togami, or myself if Sonia's coming. I'll see you later, Gundam."

Kirigiri left leaving Gundam alone again in the pod room. He spent the rest of his shift in the pod room as he was supposed to, and he knew that Sonia was after him. She was supposed to come in and relieve him while he was in there so the pod room wasn't left unattended, even if it was just for a minute or two. Sonia came in the room a little earlier than she was supposed to. Everyone had been working with Sonia to make sure she didn't show up to everything thirteen minutes early, and if she came to the pod room that early, no one was allowed to leave until their shift was completely over. 

"Morning again Gundam!" Sonia chirped. "How did your talk with Kirigiri go?"

"It was fine," Gundam said. "I'll be sure to tell you about it later."

Sonia smiled cheerfully. Gundam wasn't sure if she was actually that cheerful, or if she was just putting on a happy face to try and hide her fear. They bid each other goodbye. Gundam walked out the door as Togami was just walking in. 

\--------------------------------

"Good morning, Togami," Sonia said. 

"Hi," was his only response. "Let's get down to this shall we? I have lots of other work to do, so I'd like to make this fast if we can."

Sonia nodded. 

"We've gotten in touch with your family, and they're not the source of your banishment."

"They're not?"

"Well, technically they are, but not because they want you to be banished. It's the citizens who were directly impacted as well as other nobles in the country. The people and the nobles are threatening to rebel and overthrow your parents if they let you back into the country."

"Oh.."

"So far, they've gone with the obvious choice of keeping you banished to keep the country peaceful and orderly. However, with some convincing, they are starting to change views in your favor."

"Really?!" Sonia cried. Her eyes lit up with happiness. 

"But that doesn't mean the law set in place already can be lifted without your traditional court. The court is primarily made of those who will overthrow your parents."

"Oh."

"It's a work in progress, but it's moving." Togami pulled threw envelopes from the stack of papers he was holding. "There is something you need to do however. These are letters from both of your parents and your brother. Don't read them now cause I really don't want to deal with you if you start crying. We need you, after reading them, to send them each back letters answering any questions they may have as well as telling them about your current life. Try your best to persuade them that you're not the bad guy anymore. I need the response letters as soon as possible."

Sonia nodded, gently taking the letters from Togami. 

"I have to go, but if you have questions, ask Naegi. He'll tell you," Togami said while walking out. 

"Thank you, Togami!" she yelled as he walked out. He nodded once and left Sonia alone. She didn't dare open the letters, not yet. She didn't want Nekomaru, who was to relieve her when her shift was over, to worry about her too much. He had matters of his own to deal with. After a while, Nekomaru finally came in to let her go.

"How'd everything with Togami go, Sonia?" Nekomaru asked. 

"Fine," she said with a smile. 

"You sure?" Nekomaru asked skeptically. "You seem a little tense."

"It went well, Nekomaru," Sonia said. "I'm fine. You have your own matters to worry about, so don't worry about me. I'll see you at lunch!"

"Alright, if you're sure," Nekomaru said. Sonia nodded to show she was sincere. "Alright fine then. See you at lunch!"

Sonia bounded out the door before Nekomaru could say anything more and she set out to find Gundam.

\------------------------------------

Sonia found Gundam in his cottage, which she wasn't surprised about. He was sitting at a small desk with his hamsters who were busy eating away. 

"How did the meeting go?" Gundam asked as Sonia came and pulled a chair over next to him. 

"Fine," Sonia said. "I got some good news at least. But I also got a task along with it. How was your meeting with Kirigiri?"

"We can talk about that in a minute," Gundam said. "Tell me the news."

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me first? I mean, you discussed it with Kirigiri before me."

"No, you shall go first," Gundam said. "I have something to ask you after my own discussion."

Sonia nodded and explained everything. She explained how her parents were starting to convince more people to let her back in and she explained how the nobles were also threatening to overthrow her parents. She explained everything trying her best not to miss any details while still keeping the story short. 

"So you must write back to your family then?" Gundam asked. 

"Yes, but I have to read these letters first," Sonia said. 

"Of course. Do you want to wait to read them or open them now?" Gundam asked. 

"I'll open one," Sonia said, taking her brother's envelope out of the pile. "This is from Alexander."

Her hands shook a little as she opened the envelope gingerly and pulled out the letter from inside. 

Dear Sonia,  
I'm not exactly sure how to start off this letter, so please don't judge. So, how are you? I'm good. Not great.   
Things have been chaotic around the country, what with the Tragedy and the confusing council meetings. There have been so. Many. Council meetings.   
Things have been really dull without you around. Remember that time that an enemy invaded and we were on lockdown for three weeks? Cause I do, and even in the midst of that chaos, I still had my awesome sister.  
Mom and Dad tell me that you're really not that awesome anymore. Is it true? Did you really do what you did to us to the rest of the world?  
The Future Foundation said you don't totally remember yet, but you came in and hurt Mom, Dad, and I. None of us could believe it, but we couldn't hold power for much longer, so you stepped in. The expression on your face stung like I was slapped. You did slap me though, so it literally did sting.   
Mom and Dad, and a bunch of snooty noblemen, still think you're like that. Are you? Are you still hurting people? If you are, please stop. For me and Mom and Dad.   
I knew the second you walked into the room to come attack us that something was wrong. I knew you weren't yourself. You weren't the kind and compassionate sister I had always known, which is why I was so surprised that you changed that quickly.   
The Future Foundation told us that you cried when you found out what you did to us, which sounds more like the Sonia I know. But now it's getting hard to trust anyone. I really don't know who to believe anymore. Please give me someone to believe in. I miss you, Sonia. I miss the real Sonia Nevermind. The one that read me stories when I went to bed each night. The one that sang me my favorite songs to calm me down during storms. The one who taught me how to dance without tripping over my own feet. The one that is so compassionate and kind. The one who is truly my sister. Please Sonia, prove Mom and Dad wrong. Prove the damn noblemen wrong. I want you back in the country. I want to see my real sister again. I want my sister back.   
With Much Love,  
Alexander

Sonia's hands were shaking by the time she finished. Gundam reached over and took her hand, looking at her expectantly. 

"I'm glad I read my brother's first," Sonia said with a nervous laugh. 

"Did he say anything too nerve-racking?" Gundam asked. 

"It just sounded like the Alexander I've always known," Sonia said. "And I'm really grateful. You can read it, if you'd like."

Gundam read the letter. Sonia noticed a small smile coming to his lips a few times. Alexander had that affect on people. He could make them smile in the darkest of times. 

"It's…" Gundam began. "Really not that awful at all."

"I know. I'm glad."

"Your brother seems very amiable."

"Oh he is, Gundam," Sonia said. "And he's very clumsy. Though he does have a way with words, which covers up his foolishness." Sonia laughed. "Gundam, can you tell me what you and Kirigiri discussed?"

"Aren't you going to open the rest of your letters?"

"Later," Sonia said defiantly. "Now is Gundam Time. You listened to what I said, now I listen to you. So what happened?"

Gundam explained the situation. He told her of his mother's condition, to which Sonia was horrified. 

"Oh, Gundam," Sonia said, lightly touching his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"That isn't even all of it," Gundam said. "Now they want me to go and see if I can talk some sense into my mother about the situation."

"Are you going to go?"

"Yes, I believe I am."

"I'm sure you can do it Gundam! The King of Underworld has no power over you and neither should this!"

Gundam gave a small laugh. "Nothing in any world has power over me," he said. 

"Of course not," Sonia said with a reassuring smile.

"There is one more thing," Gundam said. "Kirigiri said that I could take you, if I so pleased."

"I'd be happy to go with you, but only if you want me there," Sonia said. 

"If you would join me, that would be splendid," Gundam said. 

"Of course," Sonia said. "Do you know when we are going?"

"This Thursday. For 48 hours at the very most."

"Then I guess it's settled," Sonia said. "Everything will be alright Gundam, I know it will."

Gundam nodded, a small grin on his face. The two then sat on the bed, one arm around each other. Sonia's head rested on Gundam's chest as they got wrapped up in their own thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only realized the other day that I hadn't updated in over two months so finally here's Chapter 12
> 
> Also, you guys are probably getting tired of this Mikan stuff. This issue will be resolved, probably in the next chapter or two. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This might be the most angsty thing I've ever written
> 
> Lots of angst
> 
> Hinanami makes a really big appearance
> 
> Everyone's favorite Ultimate Hope does too
> 
> Ton of Sondam
> 
> Some crying
> 
> Lots of worrying
> 
> Fun times in danganronpa

Hinata really didn't get much sleep that night. Knowing that he hadn't killed his parents was a breath of fresh air for him, but at the same time, he was worried about what would happen if they ever met again. He knew that he had definitely injured them, but he didn't know how severely. When he finally managed to fall asleep, he had a dream, and then he regretted sleeping that night. 

In the dream, he held a knife, noticeably coated with wet blood. He stood in front of his parents, and they seemed to be severely bleeding. 

"Wh-what happened to you!?" he heard his father say. "We raised you to be so kind, so nice."

"Now… Now you're a monster!" his mother yelled. 

Hinata opened his mouth to try to protest, but no words came out, no matter how hard he tried. This must be a memory, he thought to himself. Hinata felt himself raising the knife again, ready to deliver the final blow when someone called his name, or rather, Izuru's name. He then put his arms down and dropped the knife in front of his parents and he stormed out. When he walked out his door, the scene changed. He saw a familiar girl with a cat hoodie on. 

"Chiaki?" Hinata said in surprise. The area they were in reminded Hinata of the simulation and how he had seen Chiaki before it had all ended. "What are you doing here?" Hinata asked her, but it made no sense to him. What was he doing there?

"I wanted to show you something," she said. It had been a long time since Hinata had heard her voice. "None of the others know yet."

"Know what?"

As if on cue, a screen that reminded Hinata of a movie theater screen lit up. The screen showed Hinata and Chiaki meeting for the first time, but they weren't on the island. They were in a courtyard with a fountain and trees. The next image showed Hinata and Chiaki playing games together. The third was Hinata denying Chiaki of spending time with him, before they had a rather sentimental conversation. 

"What… What is this?" Hinata asked in disbelief. 

"…"

"Chiaki, what is this?! Why are you showing me these fake images?!"

"They aren't fake," Chiaki said simply. 

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked. Chiaki didn't answer. Instead, she pointed at the screen again. Hinata watched the same images flash across the screen again before everything came flooding back. 

"You-" Hinata started. "You were real! Those images are… They're memories aren't they?!"

Chiaki nodded.  
"That means you're still alive then!"

Chiaki's face darkened. 

"…Right?"

"That's a discussion for another time," Chiaki said. "I've told you all I can for now. I'm sorry Hinata, but I can't say anything more."

Chiaki took Hinata's hand gently. 

"What do you mean you can't tell me?"

"It's not my place."

"Huh?"

"Give it some time, and when the Future Foundation tells you, then I'll explain it to you. I don't think you're ready to hear the truth yet."

"Chiaki-"

"Give it time, Hinata," she said. 

"How are you even here, Chiaki?"

"You're memories," Chiaki said. "You're deciding to remember this now, but it's a dream this time around."

Hinata looked back up at the screen, which kept changing between those three scenarios. 

"Chiaki," Hinata said. 

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

Hinata bolted up in bed. He tried to catch his breath, but it was hard for him. Chiaki had been real? They had actually spent time together outside of the simulation? The Future Foundation had let them believe that she was a computer program. Why did they hide this?

Hinata felt something on his cheek, and when he reached up to feel it, he realized he was crying. Maybe that's why I can't calm myself down, Hinata thought. Hinata stared at the hand that had wiped his tears for a moment before it started shaking. Hinata put his head in his hands and sobbed. Everything was so much for him and there was only so much he could take. He tried to process everything that had just happened. Now he knew how he, or rather Izuru, had tried to kill his parents. He also knew now that Chiaki was real and not just a part of the Neo World Program. He was stunned and upset and he was having a hard time processing it. At that point, Hinata was reminded of all of the other stress he was trying to deal with. Creating the world for themselves, trying to keep everyone in line and alive, the stress of seeing his parents again, the stress of remembering everything he didn't want to remember, and the biggest thing was his decision to become Izuru Kamukura. 

It was a choice that would haunt him forever. He hated the people who came up with the idea, he hated the people who ultimately led to his decision (which he no doubt thought he would remember soon), but most of all, he hated himself for making that choice. He felt that he didn't deserve to be happy anymore. 

It hit Hinata like a train. He remembered why he did it. He remembered why he decided to become Izuru Kamukura, and he was sure everyone else knew the series of events themselves. He remembered Natsumi Kuzuryuu and how all she wanted was to be with her big brother. He remembered how she never wanted to be left behind in the midst of everything. He remembered how she had shared Hinata's interest in moving up to the Main Course. He remembered how Sato reacted when he accused her of murdering Natsumi. And he remembered denying Chiaki of playing games shortly after. That was when he made the decision. It was the decision that changed everything. He had wanted to become everyone's hope, but it didn't turn out right. 

Hinata hated himself for denying Chiaki. He hated himself for all the lives lost at his own hands. He hated himself for letting his lack of talent go to his head. He hated himself for becoming Izuru Kamukura. He hated himself for just about everything. 

Hinata continued sobbing, but he quieted down so not to wake Souda or any of his other neighbors. He didn't want them to see him crying like this. In between sobs, he looked at the time. It was around 5 am, and he knew he wasn't getting back to sleep any time soon. Hinata wiped the tears from his cheeks and went to wash his face with cold water. 

Hinata looked at himself in the mirror, half expecting to see the long-haired red-eyed demon that he hated so much, but it was just himself in all his brown hair grey eye glory. He remembered how simulation Chiaki had seen so much hope in him, but he wasn't so sure he believed it anymore. He helped cause the Tragedy, there was no way that hope was left in him. 

As Hinata looked at the mirror, his mind wandered off to the Future Foundation. Last he had heard, the higher ups wanted him dead. Maybe they still did. If they ever want me, Hinata thought, I'll let them have me.

After rinsing his face, he considered going for a walk on to the beach, but he was quickly reminded of the moments him and Chiaki spent there in the simulation, and diminished the idea. He laid back down in his bed and stared at the ceiling. He continued to get lost in his own thoughts. He remembered everyone who had died back in the simulation. He knew they were all coming back, and he was grateful, but he reminded himself that they never would have been in the simulation if he had never become Izuru in the first place. None of them would have suffered that much had it not been for him. He blamed himself for it all. I don't deserve my friends, Hinata thought to himself. I'm not an Ultimate, I've never had talent, he continued. I wanted to have talent, but I destroyed the world because of it, he thought to himself finally. 

After remembering these moments he spent with Chiaki and the other reserve course students, he knew he was going to be remembering more shortly. His head was already starting to hurt, and he didn't want to think about it anymore. 

Hinata wanted to run as fast as he could to the hospital. He wanted to barge in and yell and Naegi and the others for not telling him what had happened to Chiaki. He wanted to demand to know if she was still alive or not. But he didn't. He wouldn't let himself. Not after everything Naegi and the crew had done for him. They'd saved him when he didn't deserve it. They took the heat for everything, and Hinata wished he could tell them to stop and let himself take the credit and the blame for everything. He knew he was going to cry if he confronted them as well, so he didn't let himself go. 

The clock struck 5:15 and Hinata wasn't really sure what he could do. He wasn't going to fall asleep soon and he didn't want to wake anyone else up. Walking around could calm him down, but he wasn't sure if he'd make it back without breaking down again. He didn't want what had happened to Akane within the first couple days to happen to him. It also looked like it might rain, and he didn't want to venture out in a storm. 

But he did anyways. He had nothing better to do so he walked around for a while, making it a point not to go near the third or fifth islands. Instead he ventured off to the second island. He hadn't been there for a while. No one really was. Everyone usually seemed to stick to either the first, central, or third islands. They were the most important islands, and no one ever really needed to go anywhere else. Especially not the fourth or fifth islands. The rides on the fourth island weren't working well and the fifth island was mainly warehouses they didn't use. 

The first thing Hinata saw was the Future Foundation building he forgot was there. It was in better shape than the last time he was there, but it didn't seem like anyone was using it. He kept walking and found himself at the diner. He smiled a little. They had a few fun times at the diner before everything had happened. He remembered meeting up with the girls and Souda at the diner after he was forced into it by Souda. Those were the memories he loved to relive. 

After that, he walked back to the beach, but he forgot the beach house was there until he saw it. He remembered seeing Koizumi's dead body and he remembered how awful he had felt seeing the second murder. He then recollected the trial and how tragic the outcome had been for Fuyuhiko. Peko, his childhood friend, had murdered Koizumi to save him, but Peko only realized then the error of her ways. That was the same time that Peko and Fuyuhiko had finally come clean to each other about everything, and if Hinata remembered correctly, it was the only time Hinata had seen Fuyuhiko cry. It was apparently the first time he'd cried since second grade. 

Hinata opened the door to the beach house, the door that Koizumi's body had been laying up against. He half expected to see the crime scene again, but all he saw was the regular beach house. Nothing had been changed except the sign about the shower not working. He curiously walked in and turned it on, and miraculously, water did come out. He turned it off and walked back into the main part of the beach house. He looked around for a moment, reminiscing the awful death that had occurred there, and walked outside to the beach. He sat down in the sand and looked up, hoping to see stars. He saw a few stars through the dark clouds above him. Back then, those stars had given him hope, but now Hinata didn't know what to think of them. He hadn't known what he had done to humanity back then, but now he did. He was reminded of a song he had a heard a while ago. "The stars are black and cold." He couldn't remember the name of the song, but he remembered it was from a show. He remembered how the stars were originally friendly to the man singing about them, but towards the end of his life, they were cold and frightening. Hinata almost seemed to sympathize with this fictional character, because it reminded him of how he felt at that moment. 

After sitting on the beach for a while, he stood up and decided to go back to his cottage. Thunder then boomed above him, startling him. The rain the began to pour, but Hinata made no effort to escape it. He left the rain consume him as he sulked back home. His mind kept wandering back to Chiaki and Izuru, and eventually, Hinata started to tear up again. There was a flash of lightning ahead of him which made him falter for a moment. Hinata tried to wipe the rain and tears from his face, but the rain kept falling. Hinata had just made it to the central island when thunder echoed around him. At this, he took off running. He just wanted to escape his thoughts and the thunderstorm above him. Hinata was frightened of storms as a child, but he outgrew that a while ago, so why was he so scared of it now? 

His mind was racing despite the fact that it was just a thunderstorm. Something was wrong, and he needed to get back to his cottage. Hinata made it to the ranch before another burst of light, shortly followed by more thunder sounded. He immediately broke down on the spot, and he knew he had to stop running or things would get worse. He quickly found shelter in the farmhouse with a few other animals. Their food supply was full, so he guessed the Future Foundation took care of them. He looked over and saw a cow close by and he immediately remembered the time Monomi/Usami had made a chicken turn into a cow. He started crying again at this thought. It seemed to him that everything was just coming back to haunt him at once. The entire situation had suddenly decided to make itself a true reality to Hinata, and he really didn't understand why. The guilt racked through his body and he sobbed. He thought that taking a walk would clear his head, but obviously not. He tried to clear his mind of everything long enough so he could get back to the cottage. Once he got back to his cottage, he shut the door and slumped against it. He had never cried so much in his life, but he knew there was no turning back now. 

\-----------------------------------

Hinata had only fallen asleep for maybe another hour before waking up again. He gave up on trying to sleep, and soon enough, it was time for everyone to meet up and have breakfast together. Hinata sadly sulked out of his cottage, trying to keep his composure the best he could. Everyone would know that something was wrong, but he tried to put on a happy face and ignore it. 

He thankfully hadn't run into anyone on the way to the hotel, so he avoided any conversations like that. He quietly went into the hotel, fixed himself breakfast, and sat down with the others, all while keeping how he was actually feeling hidden. Everyone was gathered, as usual. Their numbers were increasing, unlike in the simulation when they would always see how their numbers were decreasing. The Future Foundation had also made an appearance. This was becoming a bit more common for them to show their faces at breakfast now a days. 

"Everyone, we have a few things to say, so if you could all sit down please," Naegi said calmly. 

Everyone sat in their seats as instructed. 

"The first order of business is Mikan's condition," Naegi continued. "She will be let out of the hospital and back to live with you guys on Sunday. She is as stable as we can get her to be now, so please treat her well and be patient with her. As stable as she can be is not completely stable. Mentioning how she killed two people isn't ideal for the first couple of days with her back. We'll work on getting her back on track the best she can, and she'll still sleep at the hospital for a week until she can definitely come back."

"The next order of business will deal with the next few days," Kirigiri said. "Tomorrow, Naegi, Togami, Asahina, Hagakure, Fukawa, and I will be accompanying Gundam and Sonia on a sort of… business trip per se."

"What kind of business trip?" Fuyuhiko asked. 

"Gundam is visiting his mother. We hope that his presence can help her current state, as she is… slipping a bit. Sonia is simply coming along," Kirigiri explained. 

"When will you guys get back?" Nekomaru asked. 

"Saturday at the latest, but we will probably be back on Friday," Naegi said. 

"What should we be doing then while you are all away?" Komaeda asked. 

"Doing what you usually do, and staying out of trouble," Togami said. "The same nurses that helped Nekomaru are going to stay with Mikan until we come back. You are not allowed in Mikan's room. Fix the pod room shifts as needed. From 11 at night until 6 in the morning the nurses will cover the various shifts. The rest is up to you guys."

"I can try and fix the schedule myself if you'd like," Fuyuhiko offered. Togami handed him the paper and a pen, and Fuyuhiko promised he would start after breakfast. 

"Is there anything you guys feel the need to talk about?" Naegi asked. Then he noticed that Hinata wasn't acting like himself. "Hinata? Are you alright?"

Crap, Hinata thought. Keep it together, keep it together. 

"I… I just…" he faltered. "Rough night?"

"Do you… Wanna talk about it?" Souda asked. 

Hinata really didn't. "I… I just have a question… For the Future Foundation…"

"What's wrong?" Naegi asked. 

Hinata took a deep breath before asking. "Why didn't you tell me Chiaki was real?"

The entire table reacted. A few of them gasped, and Fuyuhiko, who had his legs up on the table, promptly took them down and looked at the Future Foundation.

"Chiaki was real?!" Sonia cried. 

"But that's impossible," Souda said.

"Yeah," Fuyuhiko said. "She told us herself, she was a part of the game."

"She didn't… Used to be…" Naegi said hesitantly. 

So it was true, Hinata thought. He had even wondered if he had just been confused that night, if his dreams were misleading, but obviously not. 

Hinata couldn't help it. He put his hand over his eyes and the tears fell. He really didn't want to cry in front of his friends, especially about this, but he couldn't help it. Not after everything that had happened. 

"Hinata!" Sonia cried, noticing his anguish. Everyone looked over and noticed him crying, so they all stood up and came over to him. Nekomaru put his hand on Hinata's shoulder, and Sonia crouched down next to him with Gundam and Souda standing behind her. Everyone else stood behind his chair, trying to comfort him the best they could while the Future Foundation was on the other side of the table trying to figure out what to do next. 

"I'm sure he learned more than the fact that Chiaki was a real person last night," Togami hissed at Naegi. 

"What should we do?" Naegi said. 

"This is your call," Kirigiri said. 

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Nekomaru asked.  
"You don't have to tell us, but we want to help you," Sonia said.

Hinata couldn't form a sentence in between all of his crying. He hated crying in front of his friends. 

"Hey Hinata?" Naegi said from across the table. "Can you at least tell us if you remembered anything else?"

Hinata nodded. 

"Can you tell us what that is?" he asked hesitantly. "You don't have to though!"

Hinata took a deep breath. "It was… It was why I decided to go through with the experiment."

Naegi looked at Togami and Kirigiri. She whispered something to Naegi, and he nodded.  
"Hey, Hinata," Naegi said. "Do you want to come to the hospital and calm down a bit? We can talk a little there."

Hinata agreed, only because he didn't have anything to lose. They wanted to help him, at least. 

"Gundam and Sonia," Kirigiri started. "Pack your things and meet us at the hospital after lunch. We'll discuss tomorrow, go to dinner as a group, and then you can sleep at the hospital. We leave at five tomorrow morning. Fuyuhiko, plan the pod room schedule accordingly."

Fuyuhiko nodded, and everyone helped Hinata stand. A few of them gave him side hugs before walking out. Akane had the first shift, so she gave Hinata a huge hug, and left. 

The Future Foundation escorted him to the hospital, and he calmed down a bit on the way there. He was still embarrassed about said crying though. 

They all sat down in the waiting room together to discuss everything. 

"So what exactly did you remember last night?" Togami asked. 

"Well," Hinata said with a shakier breath than he would have liked. "First, I remembered how I attempted to kill my parents, and why I never actually did. Then, all of a sudden Chiaki appeared in front of a screen of some sort. The screen showed images of she and I playing games together and talking together when we both attended Hope's Peak. Then I woke up when she refused to tell me what happened to her. Then, after trying to process everything, I remembered why I chose to become Izuru in the first place."

"First off, why didn't you kill your parents like most of the others?" Togami asked. 

"Someone called me… or rather they called Izuru."

"Also, why did you become Izuru?" Naegi asked. 

"After Natsumi Kuzuryuu died, I felt like I wanted to become everyone's hope, which is exactly what this experiment was supposed to do, but it obviously didn't work."

The members took this in for a moment. 

"Mind if I ask something?" Hinata said. 

"Go ahead," Asahina said. 

"What happened to Chiaki?" Hinata finally said. 

No one said anything for a moment. 

"We…" Naegi started. "Now, just isn't a good time with everything going on. I'm sorry, but we'll tell you soon."

Hinata nodded. I guess I understand, he thought. I'll ask them another time. 

Hinata was in the waiting room for most of the day. He offered to help around the hospital with whatever they needed, so Hinata mainly sorted papers for the day. He kept his mind off of everything the best he could. 

\-------------------------------------

Sonia was in her room packing for this short trip. She was a bit nervous, for Gundam's sake of course, but he was a wreck. Though he wouldn't admit it, she knew how distraught he's been. He's been pacing a bit more than usual. He hasn't been thinking straight, and any thoughts he can keep in order have been consumed by this upcoming visit. Sonia's been there to console him, something she knew he needed. Sometimes, he would refuse her comfort, but she never took it personally; sometimes he needed time to himself. Lots of times, however, he would let her in and talk to her. He would confide in her and her in him. 

The two had packed and met up at around 2:45 and arrived at the hospital by 3:00. They were leaving very early, but she was alright with early mornings. When the two walked into the hospital, they both saw Hinata sorting through some papers with Asahina. 

"Hey Hinata!" Sonia said cheerfully. "Are you feeling any better?"

Hinata nodded. "A little bit."

"Don't let the demons of the night scare you from rest," Gundam said. 

Hinata stifled a small laugh. "Will do. Good luck with everything on your trip."

Gundam nodded and Sonia gave Hinata a small hug. 

"Kirigiri and Togami are in the back office on the second floor," Asahina said. 

Sonia and Gundam thanked Asahina, said their goodbyes to Hinata, and went to the office. They knocked on the door, to which Togami promptly answered. He let them in, but they left their bags outside the room. 

When they walked in, there were five seats at a round table, but only two of the seats were filled by Kirigiri and Togami. Gundam and Sonia sat in the additional two, while one was left over. 

"Naegi was on a business call, but he should be back shortly," Kirigiri said. 

"Business?" Gundam asked. Naegi did work for the Future Foundation, but would that qualify as a business call?

"He's talking with Future Foundation higher ups," Togami explained. "Giving them an update and confirming tomorrow's visit."

"Until he gets back, we'll explain to you how tomorrow will work," Kirigiri said. "We'll arrive around seven am and eat breakfast around eight am. Around nine, you will be given a tour of the building, and from ten to twelve, you have free time. Free time is basically you two talking and us talking to you. There won't be very many places you can go by yourselves at this point. From twelve to one you have lunch and from one to two you will be talking with some higher ups so they can understand what is happening on the island at this point. It won't be much, just a simple discussion. You tell them about daily life and make sure you get the point across that you will be "eternally sorry for your grave mistakes," as Togami puts it. You have a half hour to prepare and then at two thirty Gundam will go see his mom. We will all accompany him, but we will not interfere unless force is needed. We are not sure how long this will take but dinner is at six and we can return to talk to your mother afterwards if we see fit. We will spend the night and leave at nine am, if possible. If needed, we will stay a little while longer, but we will not stay over another night, no matter the circumstances. Is all understood?"

Gundam and Sonia nodded. Naegi soon came into the room after. 

He smiled sheepishly, a cellphone still in his hand. "We’re still on for tomorrow."

The two both nodded again. Sonia gave Naegi a small smile, but Gundam was obviously still tense. Sonia took his hand from under the table. She gave him a small smile, and he smirked back at her. 

"I assume Kirigiri told you guys what tomorrow is going to be like?" Naegi asked, almost hesitantly. 

Everyone nodded. 

"Okay!" Naegi said cheerfully. "We're going to go eat with the other in about two or three hours. Until then, you guys can talk a bit, you can talk with Hinata a little, and if we need you guys, then we'll call you. If you need to talk to us about anything, we should be free."

They said their thank yous and walked upstairs to the rooms they would be sleeping in that night. The two put their bags in the room and they were all set for the night. Sonia was worried about Gundam. He seemed very nervous, but she wasn't totally sure how to help. She decided to go talk to him in his cottage. 

She walked over to his room. The door was open, and he was sitting on the bed. She knocked on the door frame, to which he looked up. 

"Sonia?" Gundam said. "Is everything alright? You look a bit worried."

"I could be saying the same about you," Sonia laughed nervously. "May I come in?"

"Of course," Gundam said. "Close the door if the matter is serious enough."

Sonia closed the door over, but not all the way. She came in and sat down on the bed next to Gundam. 

"Are you worried about tomorrow?" she asked. 

Gundam dryly laughed. "A little bit," he admitted. "It's a bit undesiring that I may be the reason my mother goes insane or not."

"Try not to think about that," Sonia said. "Just do your best to clear the air with your mom."

"I also must convince her that food, drink, and sleep are a necessity."  
"I have no doubt that you can do that."

Gundam didn't reply. He simply looked down at his hands. Sonia took one in her own. He looked up at her, and she gave him a reassuring look. 

"Besides," Sonia started. "You get to talk to her more than once, and I'm always here for encouragement, okay?"

Gundam gave her a small smile. "Thank you." 

The two then talked about other things to try and get Gundam's mind off of things. They talked about the Four Devas, the beauty of Novoselic, and even the fun moments everyone shared together, even in the simulation. It seemed to get Gundam's mind off of things a lot, and Sonia was glad she could help. They all went to dinner with the others, and then they all came back and hung out around the hospital. Naegi, Kirigiri, and Togami decided that it would be best if Hinata stayed at the hospital for the night. He agreed and Hinata, Sonia, and Gundam all hung around in the waiting room. Sonia and Gundam were trying to get Hinata's mind off of everything, as requested by Naegi and Kirigiri. They were trying to get everything sorted out for tomorrow, and they wanted to make sure Hinata was alright. Gundam told stories of his "encounters with the dark knights" and Sonia told them old Novoselic tales. She also told them about Novoselic itself and how gorgeous it was. Sonia was mainly telling this to Hinata, because Gundam had already heard most of what she was saying. 

"Wow, Sonia," Hinata said, impressed. "Novoselic sounds beautiful."

"It's absolutely gorgeous!" Sonia said, excitedly. "I'll have to show you guys pictures some time."

Naegi and Kirigiri opened the door to the waiting room and walked in. Naegi looked a bit worried but Kirigiri had her same calm composure. 

"Hey guys," Naegi said nervously. "Hinata, can we talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure," Hinata said, starting to get up. 

"Wait!" Naegi said. "Stay there. This kinda concerns Sonia and Gundam too."

They all looked skeptically at each other and Naegi began explaining. 

"The Future Foundation higher ups called," Naegi started. "They wanted to check in on how things were going here, mainly with you Hinata."

"Lying to a higher up can be considered treason unless you are ordered by a higher up to do so," Kirigiri explained. "So we had to tell them about the current problem."

"After that, they decided that they wanted to talk to you too," Naegi said. "And not through phone call…"

Realization hit all of them like a truck. "So I have to come with you guys tomorrow?" Hinata said, surprised. 

"Unfortunately, yeah," Naegi said. 

"The higher ups will discuss things with you privately and while Sonia and Gundam are in the room," Kirigiri explained. "It's going to mainly be basic stuff, but the questions may get a bit more pressing as the interrogation goes on. Togami will be in the room with you when Sonia and Gundam aren't."

Hinata didn't say anything for a moment. "Fine," he finally said. "I have no choice right? I have to come?"

Naegi and Kirigiri didn't say anything. 

"Why don't you three all go to Hinata's cottage and help pack?" Kirigiri suggested. The three nodded and stood up. They made their way out of the hospital. They really didn't say anything. The atmosphere was a bit tense. Sonia then broke a bit of the tension and gave Hinata a small side hug as they walked. 

"It's going to be okay," she said. "They won't let anything bad happen."

Hinata gave a small dry laugh. "I'm sure they won't, but it really doesn't make me any less nervous for this. I'm worried about the questions they might ask."

"I'm sure it won't be much," Gundam said. "The most they will probably ask you is if you're that cursed demon again."

"But I'm not."  
"Then you'll be fine."

"Besides," Sonia said. "you've got us friends by your side."

"… Thanks guys," Hinata said with a small smile. 

They made their way to Hinata's cottage and he packed for the short trip. As the three were about to leave, Fuyuhiko and Souda saw them leaving. 

"Hey Hinata!" Fuyuhiko called. "How are you doing?"

"And what's with the bag?" Souda asked. 

"I… have to go with the two of them tomorrow," Hinata said.  
"Why?" Souda asked. 

"The Future Foundation just wants to talk to me about something," he said calmly. 

"Even after all this?" Fuyuhiko said, obviously talking about the whole event from this morning. "They can't just trust Naegi's word on it."

"Maybe it's just an excuse for them to keep an eye on you while they're away," Souda said. 

"That's one of the most intelligent things you've ever said," Fuyuhiko joked. 

"Hey!" Souda argued. 

"Whatever," Fuyuhiko laughed. "Anyways, good luck to you three, and feel better Hinata."

"Thanks guys," Hinata said. Sonia smiled at them, and the three walked back to the hospital. Hinata put his stuff in his room and they went back downstairs to talk for a little while longer. Around ten, Togami shut them down and they had to go to bed. They had to get up at three thirty that morning to leave. Sonia had a bit of trouble falling asleep that night. She was worried about both Gundam and Hinata. What if things became too unbearable for the both of them? She wanted to be there for them, but she wasn't sure if she knew how to properly comfort them. She wanted to tell them that everything would be fine, even if they were completely distraught, but she sometimes felt like a liar for saying that. Sometimes it wasn't true, and things took a turn for the worse. Sonia thought about this until she suddenly drifted off into a short lived sleep. Kirigiri woke her up at 3:30 in the morning, just as they said they would. Sonia quickly got ready and grabbed her stuff. When she walked into the waiting room, she only found the Future Foundation there, but no Hinata or Gundam. 

"Where are-" Sonia started. 

"Not sure," Togami cut her off. "We thought you might have known."

"I can go check on them," she said. Togami sent her off and she ran back up to the second floor to find them. She knocked on Hinata's door first.

"Hinata?" she called. "Is everything okay? Everyone's waiting downstairs."

The door opened and a groggy Hinata greeted Sonia. 

"Sorry," he yawned. "Little slow today."

"It's okay," she smiled. "I need to go get Gundam anyways."

"I thought you said everyone was waiting downstairs?" Hinata asked, emphasizing the word everyone. 

"Everyone except Gundam is waiting downstairs," she corrected herself. The two laughed and Sonia stopped at Gundam's room. She knocked on his door, expecting him to do what Hinata did and simply open the door groggy eyed and sleep deprived. That didn't happen though.

"Gundam?" She called. There was no answer. "Hey, Gundam?" She was beginning to get worried. She opened the door slightly. "Can I come in?" she asked through the crack in the door. 

She heard Gundam mumble something, but it wasn't a no, so Sonia went in. She saw Gundam examining something in his hand. Maybe a picture. But didn't he know they had to leave?

"Gundam," Sonia started. "I think it's time to go."

He looked up from the picture and nodded. He picked up his bag and the two walked down to the waiting room, where Togami promptly scolded Gundam for holding them up. Gundam didn't seem phased though as they walked to the airport where large helicopter looking thing was waiting for them. It was slightly bigger than an ordinary helicopter, and it had numerous seats besides the pilot's seat. Sonia, Gundam, and Hinata all sat next to each other while Naegi, Kirigiri, and Asahina were across. Behind Naegi, Kirigiri, and Asahina were Hagakure and Fukawa, who were both arguing over something, but Sonia wasn't paying much attention. Togami was seated next to the pilot up front. The helicopter lifted off of the ground and they were off. Gundam took out the picture he had been looking at before. Sonia peaked over (Gundam didn't seem to mind) and saw a young boy and an older woman. 

The boy had dark hair that was only slightly slicked back. Loose pieces of his hair that weren't slicked back were sticking up a little bit. The boy looked young, and he was missing one of his bottom teeth. There was a hamster sitting on his head.

The woman had dark hair as well, but she had all of her teeth. Her dark hair fell lightly on her shoulders as she smiled with the young boy. She looked like she was in her early to mid thirties. She smiled brightly showing off her teeth, which aforementioned were all there. 

"It’s me and my mother," Gundam said quietly. "I was about seven at the time. My mother was being her cheerful self, but she was mainly trying to distract me. She was terribly upset, because her father was at his wits end, and he was in the hospital. They were doing all they could for him, but it didn't look good. My mother would always try and make me happy and enjoy the happy moments rather than be sad. The hamster isn't one of my Devas, by the way. That one was my third hamster, Springer. I don’t remember where I got that name," he laughed. "Naegi gave this to me this morning. Right before you came to get me."

Sonia looked at the boy in the picture, then back up at Gundam. She could see some small resemblances, besides little Gundam's missing teeth. Sonia gave Gundam a small reassuring smile, and he returned a small smile back. 

"You should try and get some sleep," Sonia said softly. "We still have at least another three hours before we arrive."

"It looks like Hinata's already taken advantage of his right to slumber," Gundam said, motioning to Hinata. He was already passed out in his seat. The two of them laughed lightly. "I'll try and get sleep. It may get my mind off of things."

Sonia nodded. She was going to try and sleep a bit more herself. She leaned up against Gundam, who lightly wrapped an arm around her. The two of them fell asleep and didn't wake up until six o'clock. They then quietly talked with each other until they landed. Hinata hadn't woken up until the jolt of the helicopter landing sprung him awake. 

Naegi looked at the three of them. "Ready?"

They looked at each other, and then they nodded and left the helicopter, their thoughts scattered and their minds worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW that was the biggest angst filled chapter I've written so far haha
> 
> This one was a bit shorter than the other chapters but I figured with all of those details on how Hinata was feeling, it was okay. 
> 
> I also wanted to say that this story is currently being uploaded to Wattpad as well, but if you've already read to here, then you're past where my Wattpad readers are as they only have up to Chapter 8 or 9
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed :)

**Author's Note:**

> I played around with this idea for a long time and I really hope you all like it! I haven't written much in a while so if it's not great, I apologize. Hopefully I'll get better as the story progresses.


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